Immediately following the onset of active whisking, the input layer of barrel cortex exhibits a transient period of increased excitability that depends on prior experience

Abstract

The development of motor control over sensory organs is a critical milestone, enabling active explo-ration and shaping of the sensory environment. Whether the onset of sensory organ motor control directly influences the development of corresponding sensory cortices remains unknown. Here, we confirm and exploit the late onset of whisking behavior in mice to address this question in the somatosensory system. Using ex vivo electrophysiology, we describe a transient increase in the intrinsic excitability of excitatory neurons in layer IV of the barrel cortex, which processes whisker input, immediately following the onset of active whisking around on postnatal days 13 and 14. This increase in neuronal gain is specific to layer IV, independent of changes in synaptic strength, and requires prior sensory experience. Further, these effects are not expressed in inhibitory in-terneurons in barrel cortex. The transient increase in excitability is not evident in layer II/III of barrel cortex or in the visual cortex upon eye opening, suggesting a unique interaction between the development of active sensing and the thalamocortical input layer in the somatosensory iso-cortex. Predictive modeling indicates that, immediately following the onset of active whisking, changes in active membrane conductances alone can reliably distinguish neurons in control but not whisker-deprived hemispheres. Our findings demonstrate an experience-dependent, lamina-specific refinement of neuronal excitability tightly linked to the emergence of active whisking. This tran-sient increase in the gain of the thalamic input layer coincides with a critical period for synaptic plasticity in downstream layers, suggesting a role in cortical maturation and sensory processing.