Deprived somatosensory‐motor experience in stumptailed monkey neocortex: Dendritic spine density and dendritic branching of layer IIIB pyramidal cells
- 8 August 1989
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Comparative Neurology
- Vol. 286 (2) , 208-217
- https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.902860206
Abstract
Infant macaque monkeys (Macaca arctoides) were individually raised to age 6 months in large clear cubes built into one wall of a control colony that allowed them visual access to it but not tactile contact. The two deprivation conditions (Cond 2 and Cond 3) were equal both in physical size and with respect to partial social isolation. They differed in the degree of somatosensory‐motor opportunity available during development in that the Cond 2 chamber was empty, whereas Cond 3 contained ladders, a trapeze, and play objects. Four monkeys from each of these conditions were compared with four colony‐reared (Cond CR) monkeys. Neuroanatomical changes were evaluated by using light microscopy in Golgi‐Cox‐stained neocortex. Dendritic spines on the apical shafts of layer IIIB pyramidal cells were counted in primary motor (MI), somatosensory (SI), and visual (area 17, V1) cortical regions. Layer IIIB pyramidal neurons with somas of medium size were selected from each cortical region and the density of apical dendritic spines determined. The basilar dendritic branches of these same neurons were traced, and the dendritic branching complexity was assessed in order to compare the sensitivity of the dendritic spine and branching measures consequent to deprived rearing. The number of apical dendritic spines was significantly reduced in Cond 2 when compared with either Cond 3 or Cond CR (which did not differ from each other). This occurred in both MI and SI cortex, but not in the visual cortex, the region used as a control for a global brain effect. Branching complexity measured on the same pyramidal neurons was reduced only in MI cortex of Cond 2. These results show spine density, a more direct measure of neuronal connectivity, to be the more sensitive measure of early environmental deprivation. Also, the enriched environment provided by Cond 3 relative to Cond 2 offset the effect of partial social isolation such that both morphometric measures had values comparable to Cond CR monkeys.Keywords
This publication has 34 references indexed in Scilit:
- A Physiological Basis for a Theory of Synapse ModificationScience, 1987
- An “expanded stick” model for coding Golgi-impregnated neuronal morphologyJournal of Neuroscience Methods, 1987
- What's Special about Development? Thoughts on the Bases of Experience-Sensitive Synaptic PlasticityPublished by Elsevier ,1986
- The function of dendritic spines: A review of theoretical issuesBehavioral and Neural Biology, 1985
- A quantitative investigation of spine and dendrite development of neurons in visual cortex (area 17) ofMacaca nemestrina monkeysJournal of Comparative Neurology, 1979
- Intracortical connectivity of architectonic fields in the somatic sensory, motor and parietal cortex of monkeysJournal of Comparative Neurology, 1978
- THE NEURONOGRAPHIC AND METRIC STUDY OF THE DENDRITIC ARBOURS OF NEURONS IN THE MOTOR CORTEX OF MACACA MULATTA AT BIRTH AND AT 24 MONTHS OF AGEBrain, 1973
- The effect of unilateral deprivation on visual centers in ratsJournal of Comparative Neurology, 1970
- Loss of Dendrite Spines as an Index of Pre-Synaptic Terminal PatternsNature, 1966
- Growth alteration in the auditory cortex of visually deprived miceJournal of Comparative Neurology, 1966