Correction of amblyopia in cats and mice after the critical period.
Correction of amblyopia in cats and mice after the critical period.
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DOI：
10.7554/elife.70023
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发表时间：
2021-08-31
期刊：
影响因子：
7.7
通讯作者：
Bear MF
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fong MF;Duffy KR;Leet MP;Candler CT;Bear MF
发育早期的单眼剥夺会导致弱视，这是一种严重的视力损害。如果在早期关键期之后开始治疗，预后很差。然而，临床观察表明，弱视的恢复可能发生在晚年，当非剥夺(同伴)的眼睛被摘除时。对这一发现的传统解释是，通过消除初级视觉皮质的眼间抑制，揭示对先前亚阈值输入的反应，视力就会得到改善。然而，另一种解释是，另一只眼睛的沉默活动在视觉皮质中建立了条件，使弱视眼睛的微弱连接得以增强，在这种情况下，即使另一只眼睛的视力恢复，恢复也会持续。与这一想法一致，我们在猫和老鼠身上表明，在常规治疗失败的年龄，暂时停用另一只眼睛足以促进弱视的完全和持久的恢复。因此，服务于弱视眼睛的连接能够在临界期之后具有相当大的可塑性，这种潜力可以通过可逆地使另一只眼睛沉默来释放。
Monocular deprivation early in development causes amblyopia, a severe visual impairment. Prognosis is poor if therapy is initiated after an early critical period. However, clinical observations have shown that recovery from amblyopia can occur later in life when the non-deprived (fellow) eye is removed. The traditional interpretation of this finding is that vision is improved simply by the elimination of interocular suppression in primary visual cortex, revealing responses to previously subthreshold input. However, an alternative explanation is that silencing activity in the fellow eye establishes conditions in visual cortex that enable the weak connections from the amblyopic eye to gain strength, in which case the recovery would persist even if vision is restored in the fellow eye. Consistent with this idea, we show here in cats and mice that temporary inactivation of the fellow eye is sufficient to promote a full and enduring recovery from amblyopia at ages when conventional treatments fail. Thus, connections serving the amblyopic eye are capable of substantial plasticity beyond the critical period, and this potential is unleashed by reversibly silencing the fellow eye.