Mouse vision as a gateway for understanding how experience shapes neural circuits

Nicholas J. Priebe, Aaron W. McGee

Genetic programs controlling ontogeny drive many of the essential connectivity patterns within the brain. Yet it is activity, derived from the experience of interacting with the world, that sculpts the precise circuitry of the central nervous system. Such experience-dependent plasticity has been observed throughout the brain but has been most extensively studied in the neocortex. A prime example of this refinement of neural circuitry is found in primary visual cortex (V1), where functional connectivity changes have been observed both during development and in adulthood. The mouse visual system has become a predominant model for investigating the principles that underlie experience-dependent plasticity, given the general conservation of visual neural circuitry across mammals as well as the powerful tools and techniques recently developed for use in rodent. The genetic tractability of mice has permitted the identification of signaling pathways that translate experience-driven activity patterns into changes in circuitry. Further, the accessibility of visual cortex has allowed neural activity to be manipulated with optogenetics and observed with genetically-encoded calcium sensors. Consequently, mouse visual cortex has become one of the dominant platforms to study experience-dependent plasticity.