Analysis of AMPA-receptor trafficking during learning-induced reorganization of the auditory cortex

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The proposed project is designed to investigate molecular mechanisms underlying learning-induced remodeling of cortical circuits. Reorganization of cortical maps is a well described phenomenon in vivo. In vitro it has been shown that activitydependent trafficking of AMPA-receptors to synaptic domains is an important mechanism of synaptic plasticity. This project attempts to bring together plasticity phenomena at the systems level with those described at the cellular/molecular level. This will be done by experimental induction of plasticity of the tonotopic map in the primary auditory cortex of rats transiently expressing GFP-tagged AMPA-receptor subunits in vivo. Subsequently, brain slices of the auditory cortex will be prepared and incorporation of recombinant AMPA-receptors into synapses of infected neurons will be analysed by two-photon laser-scanning microscopy and patch-clamp whole-cell recordings. These investigations will provide valuable insights in the regulation of AMPA-receptor trafficking in vivo. Furthermore, they might reveal specific cell types and connections that express synaptic plasticity unter different experience of learning conditions.