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Visual NeuroPlasticity Workshop

January 10, 2024

10:00 AM to 4:00 PM ET

Outcome of Workshop:  This workshop revealed multiple mechanisms of NeuroPlasticity, moving well beyond the classic phenomena of long term potentiation and depression (LTP/LTD). Seventeen expert participants reported on studies ranging from retinal to cortical, and from molecular to behavioral. Eight principles were identified:

  • Neuroplasticity is driven by biological mechanisms that work to restore the local circuit balance of excitation and inhibition (E/I balance).
  • Sensory deprivation acts as a perturbation to the E/I balance.
  • Homeostatic processes work toward maintenance of function and they decline with age.
  • Non-neuronal cells and gap junctions contribute to and provide structural and molecular support for change.
  • Representational shifts occur via polysynaptic reweighting and involve neuronal ensembles.
  • Redundancy and reciprocity are hallmarks of resilience and agents for change.
  • Polysynaptic reweighting may occur within subcortical structures, and in thalamocortical or corticocortical projections, with the later exhibiting the most obvious adult plasticity.
  • Calculated sensory degradation stimuli may encourage neuroplasticity by taking advantage of biological reweighting algorithms.

Read the full analysis in the Visual NeuroPlasticity Workshop Report

Colorful neurons with synapse highlighted.
Oculomotor learning is a classic example of neuroplasticity, involving cerebellar synapses, brain circuits, and visual signals. Circuit tracing using Brainbow multicolor labeling. Three-dimensional reconstruction of cerebellar mossy fiber axons and granule cells. A mossy fiber contact with a granule cell is visible (indicated by the white arrowhead). Reproduced with permission from Weissman, T.A, et al. Generating and Imaging Multicolor Brainbow Mice. Cold Spring Harb Protoc. (2011); (7):763-9; Image courtesy of Joshua R. Sanes.

Sessions, Topics and Speakers:

Cortical cellular mechanisms

  • Lindsey Glickfeld, Duke University, Chair
  • Elizabeth Quinlan, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Rafael Yuste, Columbia University
  • David Fitzpatrick, Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience

Subcortical mechanisms

  • Jianhua Cang, University of Virginia, Chair
  • Hey-Kyoung Lee, Johns Hopkins University
  • Chinfei Chen, Boston Children's Hospital
  • Jennifer L. Hoy, University of Nevada, Reno

Retinal remodeling and neuroglia

  • Alapakkam Sampath, University of California Los Angeles, Chair
  • Bryan W. Jones, University of Utah
  • Greg D. Field, University of California Los Angeles
  • Daniel Kerschensteiner, Washington University
  • Cagla Eroglu, Duke University

Functional reorganization in humans

  • Marlene Behrmann, University of Pittsburgh, Chair
  • Ione Fine, University of Washington
  • Pawan Sinha, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Tara L. Alvarez, New Jersey Institute of Technology
     

NEI Program Committee

  • Martha Flanders, Chair
  • Lesley Earl
  • Tom Greenwell
  • Alicia Kerr
  • Wei Li
  • Cheri Wiggs

Contact

Alicia Kerr

Last updated: January 21, 2025