Neuroscience 2004 Abstract
| Presentation Number: | 66.9 |
|---|---|
| Abstract Title: | Auditory activity in visual cortex of anophthalmic and monophthalmic rats. |
| Authors: |
Chabot, N.*1
; Piché, M.1
; Lepore, F.2
; Guillemot, J.2
; Bronchti, G.1
; Miceli, D.1
1GRN, U. Quebec at Trois-Rivieres, Trois-Rivieres, Canada 2PQ, CP500, G9A5H7, |
| Primary Theme and Topics |
Sensory Systems - Vision -- Visual cortex: Functional organization and circuitry |
| Secondary Theme and Topics | Development<br />- Development of Sensory and Limbic Systems<br />-- Visual system |
| Session: |
66. Visual Cortex: Development and Plasticity Poster |
| Presentation Time: | Saturday, October 23, 2004 1:00 PM-2:00 PM |
| Location: | San Diego Convention Center - Hall A-H, Board # U15 |
| Keywords: | blindness, crossmodal, c-Fos, audition |
Cross-modal plasticity has been studied in various animal models. Converging results indicate that early deprived brain structures undergo reorganization and are often activated by other sensory modalities. We demonstrated crossmodal compensation in anophthalmic ZRDCT/An mice (Robert et al., 33rd SFN, 2003, 266.3) with auditory input and activation of visual thalamus and cortex. The present study aims to widen those results adding two animal models: rats from the SJH-RS strain congenitally mono- or anophthalmic; SJH-RS and Long-Evans rats, all born normal but enucleated uni- or bilaterally within the first 72 hours. We used c-Fos immunohistochemistry to reveal structures activated by auditory stimuli. All animals were placed in a noise attenuated chamber the evening before the experiment and had their mystacial whiskers trimmed to limit somatosensory activation. A few controls remained unstimulated while the other rats were submitted to white noise bursts for 60 minutes. C-Fos labeled nuclei were revealed on coronal sections using a polyclonal primary antibody (Santa-Cruz, sc-52), a biotinylated secondary antibody (sc-2042), and a nickel intensified ABC procedure. The complete auditory pathway in all stimulated animals was labeled. In all bilaterally anophthalmic rats, whether congenital or experimental, immunoreactivity was found in V1 and V2 bilaterally. In monocular animals, c-Fos labeled nuclei were found also bilaterally in V1. Interestingly, we never found more than a few labeled nuclei in the visual thalamus. Two conclusions can be drawn: (i) even in monocular rats there is evidence for auditory activity in V1, (ii) there is no evidence for the involvement of the thalamus in the reorganization of the sensory systems in these models. Supported by grants from the NSERC of Canada and from NATEQ.
Sample Citation:
[Authors]. [Abstract Title]. Program No. XXX.XX. 2004 Neuroscience Meeting Planner. San Diego, CA: Society for Neuroscience, 2004. Online.
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