Abstract
Ocular dominance plasticity is a well-documented phenomenon allowing us to study properties of cortical maturation. Understanding this maturation could be an important step towards unravelling how cortical circuits function. It is still not fully understood which mechanisms are responsible for the opening and closing of the critical period for ocular dominance and how changes in cortical responsiveness arise after visual deprivation. In this article, we present a theory for these mechanisms. Following recent experimental work, we hypothesize that in both juvenile and adult animals a reduction in inhibition is necessary for ocular dominance plasticity. We modelled how excitatory-to-inhibitory synaptic plasticity enables a drop in inhibition which in turn permits the shift in ocular dominance. Our model also provides a possible explanation to why some neurons shift counter-intuitively towards the closed eye. Finally, we discuss possible mechanisms underlying the opening and closing of the critical period.