figshare
Browse

Early Life Stress Shifts Critical Periods and Causes Precocious Visual Cortex Development

Published on by Janet Poplawski

  

The developing nervous system displays remarkable plasticity in response to sensory stimulation during critical periods of development. Critical periods may also increase the brain’s vulnerability to adverse experiences. Here we show that early-life stress in mice shifts the timing of critical period of the visual cortex. Early-life stress accelerated the opening and closing of the visual cortex critical period along with precocious development of visual acuity. Premature emergence of inhibitory perineuronal nets was accompanied by activated energy metabolism and protein biosynthesis and expression of genes linked to psychiatric disease risk, with hemispheric asymmetries favoring the right side. Thus, early-life stress desynchronizes the orchestrated temporal sequence of regional brain development leading to long-term functional deficiencies. These findings provide new insights into the dichotomy between adaptative brain plasticity versus neurodevelopmental risk factors.

Cite items from this project

DataCite
No result found

cite all items

Funding

This research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Grants #05628 and #00031 (GM). JP was supported by an Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship.

Share

email