During critical periods, all cortical neural circuits are refined to optimize their functional properties. The prevailing notion is that the balance between excitation and inhibition determines the onset and closure of critical periods. In contrast, we show that maturation of silent glutamatergic synapses onto principal neurons was sufficient to govern the duration of the critical period for ocular dominance plasticity in the visual cortex of mice. Specifically, postsynaptic density protein-95 (PSD-95) was absolutely required for experience-dependent maturation of silent synapses, and its absence before the onset of critical periods resulted in lifelong juvenile ocular dominance plasticity. Loss of PSD-95 in the visual cortex after the closure of the critical period reinstated silent synapses, resulting in reopening of juvenile-like ocular dominance plasticity. Additionally, silent synapse-based ocular dominance plasticity was largely independent of the inhibitory tone, whose developmental maturation was independent of PSD-95. Moreover, glutamatergic synaptic transmission onto parvalbumin-positive interneurons was unaltered in PSD-95 KO mice. These findings reveal not only that PSD-95-dependent silent synapse maturation in visual cortical principal neurons terminates the critical period for ocular dominance plasticity but also indicate that, in general, once silent synapses are consolidated in any neural circuit, initial experience-dependent functional optimization and critical periods end.

The disc-large (DLG)–membrane-associated guanylate kinase (MAGUK) family of proteins forms a central signaling hub of the glutamate receptor complex. Among this family, some proteins regulate developmental maturation of glutamatergic synapses, a process vulnerable to aberrations, which may lead to neurodevelopmental disorders. As is typical for paralogs, the DLG-MAGUK proteins postsynaptic density (PSD)-95 and PSD-93 share similar functional domains and were previously thought to regulate glutamatergic synapses similarly. Here, we show that they play opposing roles in glutamatergic synapse maturation. Specifically, PSD-95 promoted, whereas PSD-93 inhibited maturation of immature α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid–type glutamate receptor (AMPAR)–silent synapses in mouse cortex during development. Furthermore, through experience-dependent regulation of its protein levels, PSD-93 directly inhibited PSD-95’s promoting effect on silent synapse maturation in the visual cortex. The concerted function of these two paralogs governed the critical period of juvenile ocular dominance plasticity (jODP), and fine-tuned visual perception during development. In contrast to the silent synapse–based mechanism of adjusting visual perception, visual acuity improved by different mechanisms. Thus, by controlling the pace of silent synapse maturation, the opposing but properly balanced actions of PSD-93 and PSD-95 are essential for fine-tuning cortical networks for receptive field integration during developmental critical periods, and imply aberrations in either direction of this process as potential causes for neurodevelopmental disorders.

In the primary visual cortex (V1), monocular deprivation (MD) induces a shift in the ocular dominance (OD) of binocular neurons towards the open eye (Wiesel and Hubel, 1963; Gordon and Stryker, 1996). In V1 of C57Bl/6J mice, this OD-plasticity is maximal in juveniles, declines in adults and is absent beyond postnatal day (PD) 110 (Lehmann and Löwel, 2008) if mice are raised in standard cages. Since it was recently shown that brief dark exposure (DE) restored OD-plasticity in young adult rats (PD70-100) (He et al., 2006), we wondered whether DE would restore OD-plasticity also in adult and old mice and after a cortical stroke. To this end, we raised mice in standard cages until adulthood and transferred them to a darkroom for 10-14 days. Using intrinsic signal optical imaging we demonstrate that short-term DE can restore OD-plasticity after MD in both adult (PD138) and old mice (PD535), and that OD-shifts were mediated by an increase of open eye responses in V1. Interestingly, restored OD-plasticity after DE was accompanied by a reduction of both parvalbumin expressing cells and perineuronal nets and was prevented by increasing intracortical inhibition with diazepam. DE also maintained OD-plasticity in adult mice (PD150) after a stroke in the primary somatosensory cortex. In contrast, short-term DE did not affect basic visual parameters as measured by optomotry. In conclusion, short-term DE was able to restore OD-plasticity in both adult and aging mice and even preserved plasticity after a cortical stroke, most likely mediated by reducing intracortical inhibition.

No abstract