Environmental enrichment in adulthood promotes amblyopia recovery through a reduction of intracortical inhibition (original) (raw)

Nature Neuroscience volume 10, pages 679–681 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Loss of visual acuity caused by abnormal visual experience during development (amblyopia) is an untreatable pathology in adults. We report that environmental enrichment in adult amblyopic rats restored normal visual acuity and ocular dominance. These effects were due to reduced GABAergic inhibition in the visual cortex, accompanied by increased expression of BDNF and reduced density of extracellular-matrix perineuronal nets, and were prevented by enhancement of inhibition through benzodiazepine cortical infusion.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 12 print issues and online access

$209.00 per year

only $17.42 per issue

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Additional access options:

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Mitchell, D.E. & MacKinnon, S. Clin. Exp. Optom. 85, 5–18 (2002).
    Article Google Scholar
  2. Levi, D.M., Polat, U. & Hu, Y.S. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 38, 1493–1510 (1997).
    CAS PubMed Google Scholar
  3. Polat, U., Ma-Naim, T., Belkin, M. & Sagi, D. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 6692–6697 (2004).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  4. Erisir, A. & Harris, J.L. J. Neurosci. 23, 5208–5218 (2003).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  5. Pham, T.A., Impey, S., Storm, D.R. & Stryker, M.P. Neuron 22, 63–72 (1999).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  6. Hensch, T.K. et al. Science 282, 1504–1508 (1998).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  7. Huang, Z.J. et al. Cell 98, 739–755 (1999).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  8. Fagiolini, M. & Hensch, T.K. Nature 404, 183–186 (2000).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  9. Pizzorusso, T. et al. Science 298, 1248–1251 (2002).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  10. van Praag, H., Kempermann, G. & Gage, F.H. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 1, 191–198 (2000).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  11. Hensch, T.K. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 6, 877–888 (2005).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  12. Kirkwood, A. & Bear, M.F. J. Neurosci. 14, 1634–1645 (1994).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  13. Artola, A. & Singer, W. Nature 330, 649–652 (1987).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  14. He, H.Y., Hodos, W. & Quinlan, E.M. J. Neurosci. 26, 2951–2955 (2006).
    Article CAS Google Scholar
  15. Pizzorusso, T. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103, 8517–8522 (2006).
    Article CAS Google Scholar

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank F. Clementi for kindly providing us the diazepam and A. Viegi for his technical assistance with high-performance liquid chromatography. This work was supported by grants from Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca (MIUR), Programmi di Ricerca di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN) and Fondo Integrativo Speciale Ricerca (FISR).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Alessandro Sale and José Fernando Maya Vetencourt: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza dei Cavalieri, Pisa, I-56100, Italy
    Alessandro Sale, José Fernando Maya Vetencourt, Laura Baroncelli, Roberto De Pasquale & Lamberto Maffei
  2. Institute of Neuroscience, CNR, Via Moruzzi 1, Pisa, I-56100, Italy
    Paolo Medini, Maria Cristina Cenni & Lamberto Maffei

Authors

  1. Alessandro Sale
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  2. José Fernando Maya Vetencourt
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  3. Paolo Medini
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  4. Maria Cristina Cenni
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  5. Laura Baroncelli
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  6. Roberto De Pasquale
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar
  7. Lamberto Maffei
    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

A.S. and J.F.M.V. contributed equally to this work. A.S. carried out the in vivo electrophysiology, behavioral experiments, immunohistochemistry and assisted in the in vivo brain microdialysis. J.F.M.V. carried out the in vivo brain microdialysis, high performance liquid chromatography and assisted in the in vivo electrophysiology. P.M. carried out the in vivo electrophysiology and M.C.C., the immunohistochemistry experiments. L.B. performed the behavioral assessment of visual acuity in normal rats and R.D.P., the in vitro electrophysiology. A.S., J.F.M.V. and L.M. wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence toAlessandro Sale.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sale, A., Maya Vetencourt, J., Medini, P. et al. Environmental enrichment in adulthood promotes amblyopia recovery through a reduction of intracortical inhibition.Nat Neurosci 10, 679–681 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1899

Download citation

This article is cited by