Finally, the spine response d' was correlated with performance in both naive and trained mice-spines do do something, it seems
She confirmed previous findings of increased spine formation in Layer 2/3 (and 5) but she found something else: L2/3 spines have smaller head diameters in trained mice 👀
More PSDs typically=more presynaptic sites in contact with spines, so maybe more inputs (from same or different axons), which might change spine orientation selectivity (the beauty of working in the V1), so Mona imaged spines with 2P and gCaMP8s
In this first study, she used 2P imaging to study structural and functional changes in the spines of the V1 associated with learning a visual discrimination task
You can read all about it here while it's making it's rounds through review www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Comments and feedback are welcome, especially as we plan our next studies
TLDR: functional changes in spines reflect behavioral performance and it seems that in the adult brain, the existing architecture reconfigures on a nanoscale level to accommodate the new synapses formed during task training
A weird imaging or tissue prep artifact?? Doesn't look it. We brought in our STED BFF Martin Hruska from WVU to take a closer look at spines and nanodomains in trained mice. Mind-blowingly, she found that trained mice have more spines with 2 and 3+ PSDs but they're all also smaller 👀
She found that the OS of spines shifts towards task orientations, similar to what has been reported for neurons themselves after task training. Alas, the spines were still shrinking after training, but it wasn't random: spines tuned to the the rewarded cue shrank, but they had a stronger response
In light of my home country Bosnia and Herzegovina's splendid first game last night, I am excited to share my first grad students first first author preprint from my lab (many firsts 😄)
🇧🇦☪️ War Child & Nak Muay. #circuits #development #sysneuro @UVA Psych by day, baker amateur and zoo keeper by night
Adema Ribic
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www.biorxiv.org
Spines in the adult cortex are thought to be highly stable, and that their capacity for modest remodeling supports learning. Using a visual association task and a multilevel imaging approach in adult ...
Spines in the adult cortex are thought to be highly stable, and that their capacity for modest remodeling supports learning. Using a visual association task and a multilevel imaging approach in adult ...
