The CD-paired P0 groups did, however, at gap distances where the animal

had to rely more on their whiskers, make more attempts compared with control animals which could indicate an increased exploratory activity similar to that seen by depriving all the whiskers (Lee et al. 2009). Noteworthy is, however, that the P0 animals show the increased activity at a distance where the importance of whiskers Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical is higher; thus, it is an increased motor activity that is tactile dependent initiated by increased requirements on sensory processing in the somatosensory cortex. The structural arrangement of the whisker in rows and arcs makes it possible to alter sensory experience in many different Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical ways (Ebner and Armstrong-James 2005; Feldman and Brecht 2005). In general, it appears that the effects of removing all whiskers are quite different from removing only a selected few

where neighboring barrel columns receive unequal amounts of sensory input (Diamond et al. 1993; Finnerty et al. 1999; Finnerty and Connors 2000; Ebner and Armstrong-James 2005; Wallace and Sakmann 2008; Krieger 2009). These differences in cellular effects caused by different deprivation protocols are apparently also manifested as differences Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in behavior. Explaining the altered behavior in terms of the underlying neuronal circuits The difference in species (rat or mouse), deprivation protocol (removing all whiskers or only a selected number of rows), duration of deprivation (days or weeks), and other factors complicate a direct comparison between studies Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of behavior, anatomy, and physiology, which would be necessary to explain the observed behavioral effects in terms of the underlying mechanisms. Our main assumption is that in the P0 group we Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical have interfered with the normal formation of thalamocortical synapses and the preferential spread of intracortical axons

along a row (Keller and Carlson 1999). The abnormal formation of thalamocortical projections could result in inadequate sensory gating which is manifested as hyperactivity and attention FK228 mouse deficits (reviewed in Cascio 2010). In the experimental paradigm reported in this study, the abnormal formation of thalamocortical why projections is manifested as an increased whisker-mediated motor behavior (increased number of attempts with on average shorter duration; Fig 3). The rewiring of the thalamocortical projections, which is evident from the changes in barrels size (Fig. 1), could thus result in an increased cortical representation of the spared whisker and in addition a decrease in the surround inhibition (Kelly et al. 1999) from sensory deprived neighboring relatively smaller barrels (Fig. 1C), these effects could contribute to an over excitation manifested in an increased behavioral activity. Acknowledgments We thank Tansu Celikel for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Author contributions: L. B. and S. P.