Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction to the barrel cortex
- 2 Anatomical pathways
- 3 Cellular and synaptic organization of the barrel cortex
- 4 Development of barrel cortex
- 5 Sensory physiology
- 6 Synaptic plasticity of barrel cortex
- 7 Experience-dependent plasticity
- 8 New and emerging fields in barrel cortex research
- References
- Index
- Plate section
7 - Experience-dependent plasticity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction to the barrel cortex
- 2 Anatomical pathways
- 3 Cellular and synaptic organization of the barrel cortex
- 4 Development of barrel cortex
- 5 Sensory physiology
- 6 Synaptic plasticity of barrel cortex
- 7 Experience-dependent plasticity
- 8 New and emerging fields in barrel cortex research
- References
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
Plasticity is an important topic in neuroscience, both from a philosophical and a practical viewpoint. Plasticity is involved in development, learning and memory and in shaping the nervous system's response to injury and disease. With regard to development, some topics have been covered in Chapter 4, but here we concentrate in more detail on the mechanisms of plasticity rather than their developmental sequence and consequences for development. On the question of learning and memory, in Section 7.2 we look at the extent to which synaptic plasticity mechanisms are activated by changes in sensory experience. This issue relates in a general way to the means by which experience creates memories. Sensory experience can induce lasting memories and memory is thought to depend on synaptic plasticity. Therefore, understanding how sensory experience induces synaptic plasticity is germane to understanding learning and memory. In both cases, experience changes synaptic function. On the question of the nervous system's response to injury, we treat this topic separately from the general treatment of experience-dependent plasticity because even though it may involve components of the latter it certainly involves other factors too (Section 7.5). In many ways, this may be the more urgent category of plasticity to tackle because a full understanding of injury-induced plasticity may lead to therapies for the consequences of damage to peripheral or central structures.
The early studies on somatosensory cortical plasticity were concerned with the cortical response to peripheral injury.
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- Information
- Barrel Cortex , pp. 171 - 216Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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