AMPAR trafficking dependent LTP initiates cortical remapping and adaptive behaviors during sensory experience

Cortical plasticity improves behaviors and helps recover lost functions after injury by adapting neuronal computations. However, the underlying synaptic and circuit mechanisms remain unclear. In mice, we found that trimming all but one whisker enhances sensory responses from the spared whisker in the somatosensory barrel cortex and occludes whisker-mediated long-term potentiation (w-LTP) in vivo. In addition, whisking-dependent behaviors that are initially impaired by single whisker experience (SWE) rapidly recover when associated cortical regions remap. Blocking the surface diffusion of AMPA receptors (AMPARs) suppresses the expression of w-LTP in naive mice with all whiskers intact, demonstrating that physiologically induced LTP in vivo requires AMPARs trafficking. We used this approach to demonstrate that w-LTP is required for SWE-mediated strengthening of synaptic inputs and initiates the recovery of previously learned skills during the early phases of SWE. Taken together, our data reveal that w-LTP mediates cortical remapping and behavioral improvement upon partial sensory deafferentation and demonstrates that restoration of sensory function after peripheral injury can be manipulated.