Stimulus intensity determines experience-dependent modifications in neocortical neuron firing rates.

ABSTRACT: Although subthreshold inputs of neocortical sensory neurons are broadly tuned, the spiking output is more restricted. These subthreshold inputs provide a substrate for stimulus intensity-dependent changes their spiking output, as well as for experience-dependent plasticity to alter firing properties. Here we investigated how different stimulus intensities modified the firing output of individual neurons in layer 2/3 of the mouse barrel cortex. Decreasing stimulus intensity over a 30-fold range lowered the firing rates evoked by principal whisker stimulation and reduced the overall size of the responding ensemble in whisker-undeprived animals. We then examined how these responses were changed after single-whisker experience (SWE). After 7 days of SWE, the mean magnitude of response to spare

SUBMITTER: Glazewski S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4331261 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature