Short-term plasticity in the human visual thalamus
While there is evidence that the visual cortex retains a potential for plasticity in adulthood, less is known about the subcortical stages of visual processing. Here, we asked whether short-term ocular dominance plasticity affects the human visual thalamus. We addressed this question in normally sig...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2022-04-01
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| Series: | eLife |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/74565 |
| _version_ | 1811203644320645120 |
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| author | Jan W Kurzawski Claudia Lunghi Laura Biagi Michela Tosetti Maria Concetta Morrone Paola Binda |
| author_facet | Jan W Kurzawski Claudia Lunghi Laura Biagi Michela Tosetti Maria Concetta Morrone Paola Binda |
| author_sort | Jan W Kurzawski |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | While there is evidence that the visual cortex retains a potential for plasticity in adulthood, less is known about the subcortical stages of visual processing. Here, we asked whether short-term ocular dominance plasticity affects the human visual thalamus. We addressed this question in normally sighted adult humans, using ultra-high field (7T) magnetic resonance imaging combined with the paradigm of short-term monocular deprivation. With this approach, we previously demonstrated transient shifts of perceptual eye dominance and ocular dominance in visual cortex (Binda et al., 2018). Here, we report evidence for short-term plasticity in the ventral division of the pulvinar (vPulv), where the deprived eye representation was enhanced over the nondeprived eye. This vPulv plasticity was similar as previously seen in visual cortex and it was correlated with the ocular dominance shift measured behaviorally. In contrast, there was no effect of monocular deprivation in two adjacent thalamic regions: dorsal pulvinar and Lateral Geniculate Nucleus. We conclude that the visual thalamus retains potential for short-term plasticity in adulthood; the plasticity effect differs across thalamic subregions, possibly reflecting differences in their corticofugal connectivity. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T02:58:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8be7d9473d05403daf4695723b55da31 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T02:58:43Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj.art-8be7d9473d05403daf4695723b55da312022-12-22T03:50:44ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2022-04-011110.7554/eLife.74565Short-term plasticity in the human visual thalamusJan W Kurzawski0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2781-1236Claudia Lunghi1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3811-5404Laura Biagi2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2159-439XMichela Tosetti3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2515-7560Maria Concetta Morrone4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1025-0316Paola Binda5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7200-353XUniversity of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; IRCCS Stella Maris, Pisa, ItalyUniversity of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs, Département d’études cognitives, École normale supérieure, PSL Research University, Paris, FranceIRCCS Stella Maris, Pisa, ItalyIRCCS Stella Maris, Pisa, Italy; IMAGO7 Foundation, Pisa, ItalyUniversity of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; IRCCS Stella Maris, Pisa, ItalyUniversity of Pisa, Pisa, ItalyWhile there is evidence that the visual cortex retains a potential for plasticity in adulthood, less is known about the subcortical stages of visual processing. Here, we asked whether short-term ocular dominance plasticity affects the human visual thalamus. We addressed this question in normally sighted adult humans, using ultra-high field (7T) magnetic resonance imaging combined with the paradigm of short-term monocular deprivation. With this approach, we previously demonstrated transient shifts of perceptual eye dominance and ocular dominance in visual cortex (Binda et al., 2018). Here, we report evidence for short-term plasticity in the ventral division of the pulvinar (vPulv), where the deprived eye representation was enhanced over the nondeprived eye. This vPulv plasticity was similar as previously seen in visual cortex and it was correlated with the ocular dominance shift measured behaviorally. In contrast, there was no effect of monocular deprivation in two adjacent thalamic regions: dorsal pulvinar and Lateral Geniculate Nucleus. We conclude that the visual thalamus retains potential for short-term plasticity in adulthood; the plasticity effect differs across thalamic subregions, possibly reflecting differences in their corticofugal connectivity.https://elifesciences.org/articles/74565ultra-high field magnetic resonancepulvinarhomeostatic plasticitylateral geniculate nucleusmonocular deprivationvisual BOLD responses |
| spellingShingle | Jan W Kurzawski Claudia Lunghi Laura Biagi Michela Tosetti Maria Concetta Morrone Paola Binda Short-term plasticity in the human visual thalamus eLife ultra-high field magnetic resonance pulvinar homeostatic plasticity lateral geniculate nucleus monocular deprivation visual BOLD responses |
| title | Short-term plasticity in the human visual thalamus |
| title_full | Short-term plasticity in the human visual thalamus |
| title_fullStr | Short-term plasticity in the human visual thalamus |
| title_full_unstemmed | Short-term plasticity in the human visual thalamus |
| title_short | Short-term plasticity in the human visual thalamus |
| title_sort | short term plasticity in the human visual thalamus |
| topic | ultra-high field magnetic resonance pulvinar homeostatic plasticity lateral geniculate nucleus monocular deprivation visual BOLD responses |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/74565 |
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