Long-Term Potentiation in the Neonatal Rat Barrel Cortex In Vivo

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is important for the activity-dependent formation of early cortical circuits. In the neonatal rodent barrel cortex, LTP has been studied only in vitro. We combined voltage-sensitive dye imaging with extracellular multielectrode recordings to study whisker stimulation-induced LTP in the whisker-to-barrel cortex pathway of the neonatal rat barrel cortex in vivo. Single whisker stimulation at 2 Hz for 10 min induced an age-dependent expression of LTP in postnatal day (P) 0 to P14 rats, with the strongest expression of LTP at P3-P5. The magnitude of LTP was largest in the activated barrel-related column, smaller in the surrounding septal region, and no LTP could be observed in the neighboring barrel. Current source density analyses revealed an LTP-associated increase of synaptic current sinks in layer IV/lower layer II/III at P3-P5 and in the cortical plate/upper layer V at P0-P1. Our study demonstrates for the first time an age-dependent and spatially confined LTP in the barrel cortex of the newborn rat in vivo.