PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Widmer, Felix C.
AU  - Keller, Georg B.
TI  - Developmental plasticity in visual cortex is necessary for normal visuomotor integration and visuomotor skill learning
AID  - 10.1101/2021.06.20.449148
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.06.20.449148
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/06/20/2021.06.20.449148.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/06/20/2021.06.20.449148.full
AB  - The experience of coupling between motor output and visual feedback is necessary for the development of visuomotor skills and shapes visuomotor integration in visual cortex. Whether these experience-dependent changes involve plasticity in visual cortex remains unclear. Here, we probed the role of NMDA receptor-dependent plasticity in mouse primary visual cortex (V1) during visuomotor development. Using a conditional knockout of NMDA receptors and a photoactivatable inhibitor of CaMKII, we locally perturbed plasticity in V1 during first visual experience, recorded neuronal activity in V1, and tested the mice in a visuomotor task. We found that perturbing plasticity before, but not after, first visuomotor experience reduces responses to unpredictable stimuli, diminishes the suppression of predictable feedback in V1, and impairs visuomotor skill learning later in life. Our results demonstrate that plasticity in the local V1 circuit during early life is critical for shaping visuomotor integration.*** Dear reader, please note this manuscript is formatted in a standard submission format, and all statistical information is provided in Table S1. ***Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.CaMKIICalcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IIGrin1Glutamate receptor ionotropic NMDA subunit 1L2/3Layer 2/3 of cortexL4Layer 4 of cortexL5Layer 5 of cortexNMDAN-Methyl-D-aspartatepaAIP2photoactivatable autocamtide inhibitory peptide 2 (an inhibitor of CaMKII)PVParvalbuminSEMStandard error of the meanSSTSomatostatinV1Primary visual cortex