Neural Dynamics in the Developing Piriform Cortex of Awake Rats

Revealing the mystery of cortical development can help us understand how cortical circuits learn to process information. Recent work on the visual and somatosensory systems has shown that cortex learns to process information during the pre-critical period, mostly in the absence of sensory input. For example, before maturation of the retina, spontaneous retinal waves trigger 10 Hz spindle oscillations in the thalamocortical loop that drive plastic changes in visual cortex. Little is known about the development of piriform olfactory cortex—a three-layer paleocortex that lacks thalamic relay and receives natural sensory input from birth. We ask whether the same activity patterns observed during development of neocortex are observed in piriform cortex by recording local field potential (LFP) activity in piriform cortex of awake rats during the first three weeks of life (P0-21). At birth, the piriform LFP exhibits respiration and spindle oscillations in response to odor stimuli. Spindle oscillations increase in frequency until they reach adult beta oscillation values by P15. In parallel, spontaneous activity undergoes a dramatic increase in structure. These findings indicate that early developmental dynamics observed in piriform cortex activity are highly similar to those previously observed in neocortical sensory areas. This suggests that the principles underlying cortical development are evolutionarily conserved, and that sensory cortical development may be coordinated across the brain.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Zhang, Zihao

• development

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/93917

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/93917