Abstract
Sleep enhances plasticity in neocortex, and thereby improves sensory learning. Here we show that sleep itself undergoes changes as a consequence of waking experience during a late critical period in cats and mice. Dark-rearing produced a robust and reversible decrement of slow-wave electrical activity during sleep that was restricted to visual cortex and impaired by gene-targeted reduction of NMDA receptor function.
MeSH terms
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Aging / genetics
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Animals
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Cats
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Dark Adaptation / genetics
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Mice
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Mice, Knockout
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Neuronal Plasticity / genetics*
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Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / deficiency
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Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / genetics
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Sensation / genetics*
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Sensory Deprivation / physiology
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Sleep / genetics*
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Synaptic Transmission / genetics
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Thalamus / growth & development*
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Thalamus / physiology
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Visual Cortex / growth & development*
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Visual Cortex / physiology
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Visual Pathways / growth & development*
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Visual Pathways / physiology
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Wakefulness / genetics*
Substances
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NR2A NMDA receptor
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Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate