A transient postnatal quiescent period precedes emergence of mature cortical dynamics
Abstract
Mature neural networks synchronize and integrate spatiotemporal activity patterns to support cognition. Emergence of these activity patterns and functions is believed to be developmentally regulated, but the postnatal time course for neural networks to perform complex computations remains unknown. We investigate the progression of large-scale synaptic and cellular activity patterns across development using high spatiotemporal resolution in vivo electrophysiology in immature mice. We reveal that mature cortical processes emerge rapidly and simultaneously after a discrete but volatile transition period at the beginning of the second postnatal week of rodent development. The transition is characterized by relative neural quiescence, after which spatially distributed, temporally precise, and internally organized activity occurs. We demonstrate a similar developmental trajectory in humans, suggesting an evolutionarily conserved mechanism that could facilitate a transition in network operation. We hypothesize that this transient quiescent period is a requisite for the subsequent emergence of coordinated cortical networks.
Data availability
Source data are presented in Supplementary Figures and uploaded to Dryad. Data pertaining to human subjects is governed by IRB policy and can be accessed through application to the IRB. Pooled, processed human subject data are uploaded to Dryad.
-
A transient postnatal quiescent period precedes emergence of mature cortical dynamicsDryad Digital Repository, doi:10.5061/dryad.15dv41nxp.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institutes of Health (R21 EY032381)
- Dion Khodagholy
- Jennifer N Gelinas
H2020 European Research Council (Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 799501)
- Soledad Dominguez
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All animal experiments were performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.protocol AABI5568.
Human subjects: We retrospectively analyzed EEG recordings from 54 patients who underwent continuous monitoring with surface electroencephalography (EEG) as part of clinical diagnostic assessment. Analysis of these data were approved by the Institutional Review Board at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and all data collection occurred at this institution. All data reviewed was initially obtained for clinical management purposes and informed consent was waived as per 45 CFR 46.116.
Copyright
© 2021, Dominguez et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 1,939
- views
-
- 333
- downloads
-
- 12
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Further reading
-
- Neuroscience
When observing others’ behaviors, we continuously integrate their movements with the corresponding sounds to enhance perception and develop adaptive responses. However, how the human brain integrates these complex audiovisual cues based on their natural temporal correspondence remains unclear. Using electroencephalogram (EEG), we demonstrated that rhythmic cortical activity tracked the hierarchical rhythmic structures in audiovisually congruent human walking movements and footstep sounds. Remarkably, the cortical tracking effects exhibit distinct multisensory integration modes at two temporal scales: an additive mode in a lower-order, narrower temporal integration window (step cycle) and a super-additive enhancement in a higher-order, broader temporal window (gait cycle). Furthermore, while neural responses at the lower-order timescale reflect a domain-general audiovisual integration process, cortical tracking at the higher-order timescale is exclusively engaged in the integration of biological motion cues. In addition, only this higher-order, domain-specific cortical tracking effect correlates with individuals’ autistic traits, highlighting its potential as a neural marker for autism spectrum disorder. These findings unveil the multifaceted mechanism whereby rhythmic cortical activity supports the multisensory integration of human motion, shedding light on how neural coding of hierarchical temporal structures orchestrates the processing of complex, natural stimuli across multiple timescales.
-
- Neuroscience
Early-life stress can have lifelong consequences, enhancing stress susceptibility and resulting in behavioural and cognitive deficits. While the effects of early-life stress on neuronal function have been well-described, we still know very little about the contribution of non-neuronal brain cells. Investigating the complex interactions between distinct brain cell types is critical to fully understand how cellular changes manifest as behavioural deficits following early-life stress. Here, using male and female mice we report that early-life stress induces anxiety-like behaviour and fear generalisation in an amygdala-dependent learning and memory task. These behavioural changes were associated with impaired synaptic plasticity, increased neural excitability, and astrocyte hypofunction. Genetic perturbation of amygdala astrocyte function by either reducing astrocyte calcium activity or reducing astrocyte network function was sufficient to replicate cellular, synaptic, and fear memory generalisation associated with early-life stress. Our data reveal a role of astrocytes in tuning emotionally salient memory and provide mechanistic links between early-life stress, astrocyte hypofunction, and behavioural deficits.