Excitatory–inhibitory balance and critical period plasticity in developing visual cortex

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on a newfound perspective of excitatory inhibitory balance within cortical circuits that has granted this control. Neuronal circuits are shaped by their activity during critical or sensitive periods in development. Initially spontaneous, then early sensory-evoked patterns of action potentials are required to sculpt the remarkably complex connectivity found in the adult brain, which then loses this extraordinary level of plasticity. Whether it is the targeting of individual axons or the acquisition of language, there is no doubt that dramatic rewiring is most powerful early in postnatal life. The ability to freely switch on or off critical period mechanisms confirms the very existence of the special stages of heightened plasticity.