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
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Mitchell, D.E. & MacKinnon, S. Clin. Exp. Optom. 85, 5–18 (2002).
Levi, D.M., Polat, U. & Hu, Y.S. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 38, 1493–1510 (1997).
Polat, U., Ma-Naim, T., Belkin, M. & Sagi, D. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 6692–6697 (2004).
Erisir, A. & Harris, J.L. J. Neurosci. 23, 5208–5218 (2003).
Pham, T.A., Impey, S., Storm, D.R. & Stryker, M.P. Neuron 22, 63–72 (1999).
Hensch, T.K. et al. Science 282, 1504–1508 (1998).
Huang, Z.J. et al. Cell 98, 739–755 (1999).
Fagiolini, M. & Hensch, T.K. Nature 404, 183–186 (2000).
Pizzorusso, T. et al. Science 298, 1248–1251 (2002).
van Praag, H., Kempermann, G. & Gage, F.H. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 1, 191–198 (2000).
Hensch, T.K. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 6, 877–888 (2005).
Kirkwood, A. & Bear, M.F. J. Neurosci. 14, 1634–1645 (1994).
Artola, A. & Singer, W. Nature 330, 649–652 (1987).
He, H.Y., Hodos, W. & Quinlan, E.M. J. Neurosci. 26, 2951–2955 (2006).
Pizzorusso, T. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103, 8517–8522 (2006).
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
Authors and Affiliations
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
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Fig. 1
Visual acuity recovery in RS-EE adult rats. (PDF 22 kb)
Supplementary Fig. 2
Levels of extracellular glutamate are not different between RS-SC and RS-EE adult rats. (PDF 61 kb)
Supplementary Fig. 3
Environmental enrichment–induced changes of plasticity factors in the visual cortex. (PDF 391 kb)
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
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1899
This article is cited by
-
Enriched binocular experience followed by sleep optimally restores binocular visual cortical responses in a mouse model of amblyopia
Communications Biology (2023)
-
The 100 most cited papers on amblyopia: a bibliographic perspective
International Ophthalmology (2022)
-
Pharmacological and optical activation of TrkB in Parvalbumin interneurons regulate intrinsic states to orchestrate cortical plasticity
Molecular Psychiatry (2021)
-
Reduced evoked activity and cortical oscillations are correlated with anisometric amblyopia and impairment of visual acuity
Scientific Reports (2021)
-
Short-Term Visual Experience Leads to Potentiation of Spontaneous Activity in Mouse Superior Colliculus
Neuroscience Bulletin (2021)