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- Title
Visual Experience Facilitates BDNF-Dependent Adaptive Recruitment of New Neurons in the Postembryonic Optic Tectum.
- Authors
Hall, Zachary J.; Tropepe, Vincent
- Abstract
Postembryonicbraindevelopmentis sensitive toenvironmentalinputandsensoryexperience,butthemechanismsunderlyinghealthy adaptive brain growth are poorly understood. Here, we tested the importance of visual experience on larval zebrafish (Danio rerio) postembryonic development of the optic tectum (OT), a midbrain structure involved in visually guided behavior.Wefirst characterized postembryonic neurogenic growth in OT, in which new neurons are generated along the caudal tectal surface and contribute appositionally to anatomical growth. Restricting visual experience during development by rearing larvae in dim light impairedOTanatomical and neurogenic growth, specifically by reducing the survival of new neurons in the medial periventricular gray zone. Neuronal survival in the OT was reduced only when visual experience was restricted for the first 5 d following new neuron generation, suggesting that tectal neurons exhibit an early sensitive period in which visual experience protects these cells from subsequent neuronal loss. The effect of dim rearing on neuronal survival was mimicked by treatment with an NMDA receptor antagonist early, but not later, in a new neuron's life. Both dim rearing and antagonist treatment reduced BDNFproductionin theOT,andsupplementinglarvaewithexogenousBDNFduringdimrearingpreventedneuronalloss, suggesting that visual experience protects new tectal neurons through neural activity-dependent BDNF expression. Collectively, we present evidence for a sensitive period of neurogenic adaptive growth in the larval zebrafish OT that relies on visual experience-dependent mechanisms.
- Subjects
BRAIN-derived neurotrophic factor; NEURAL development; EMBRYOLOGY; ZEBRA danio; DEVELOPMENTAL neurobiology; GLUTAMIC acid
- Publication
Journal of Neuroscience, 2018, Vol 38, Issue 8, p2000
- ISSN
0270-6474
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1962-17.2018