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Large-scale changes in dendritic structure during reorganization of adult somatosensory cortex

Abstract

In adult rat somatosensory cortex (S1), neurons are biased and have less dendritic arbor close to the border between the forepaw and lower jaw representations. Changes in sensory experience cause changes in the functional organization of the neocortex. Therefore, we examined the morphology of neurons in the reorganized region of S1 after forepaw denervation. We found that during reorganization dendritic arbors changed to reflect the new location of the border.

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Figure 1: Forepaw denervation induces reorganization of S1.
Figure 2: Changes in dendritic bias during cortical reorganization.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Burns for comments on versions of this manuscript. This work was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS42241).

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Correspondence to Peter W Hickmott.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Mean distances from the normal and reorganized borders of neurons sampled were equivalent for all durations of denervation. (JPG 68 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

Dendritic arbor on either or both sides of neurons was affected by reorganization. (JPG 83 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3

Dendrites close to and far from the soma were affected by reorganization. (JPG 65 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 39 kb)

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Hickmott, P., Steen, P. Large-scale changes in dendritic structure during reorganization of adult somatosensory cortex. Nat Neurosci 8, 140–142 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1384

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