PMID- 18506770
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20080822
LR  - 20131121
IS  - 1932-8451 (Print)
IS  - 1932-8451 (Linking)
VI  - 68
IP  - 8
DP  - 2008 Jul
TI  - Breaking the balance: ocular BDNF-injections induce visual asymmetry in pigeons.
PG  - 1123-34
LID - 10.1002/dneu.20647 [doi]
AB  - In pigeons, asymmetric photic stimulation around hatch induces functional visual 
      asymmetries that are accompanied by left-right differences in tectal cell sizes. 
      Different aspects of light-dependent neuronal differentiation are known to be 
      mediated by the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Therefore, we 
      investigated by means of single or triple BDNF- or saline-injections into the 
      right eye of dark-incubated pigeon hatchlings if ocular BDNF enrichment mimics 
      the effects of biased visual input. As adults, the birds were tested in a 
      grit-grain discrimination task to estimate the degree and direction of visual 
      lateralization followed by a morphometric analysis of retinal and tectal cells. 
      The grit-grain discrimination task demonstrated that triple BDNF-injections 
      enhanced visuoperceptual and visuomotor functioning of the left eye system. 
      Morphometric analysis showed bilateral cell-type dependent effects within the 
      optic tectum. While single-BDNF injections increased cell body sizes of 
      calbindin-positive efferent neurons, triple-injections decreased cell sizes of 
      parvalbumin-positive cells. Moreover, single BDNF-injections increased retinal 
      cell sizes within the contralateral eye. Analysis of BDNF-induced intracellular 
      signaling demonstrated enhanced downstream Ras activation for at least 24 h 
      within both tectal halves whereas activity changes within the contralateral 
      retina could not be detected. This points to primarily tectal effects of ocular 
      BDNF. In sum, exogenous BDNF modulates the differentiation of retinotectal 
      circuitries and dose-dependently shifts lateralized visuomotor processing towards 
      the noninjected side. Since these effects are opposite to embryonic light 
      stimulation, it is unlikely that the impact of light onto asymmetry formation is 
      mediated by retinal BDNF.
CI  - (Copyright) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
FAU - Manns, Martina
AU  - Manns M
AD  - Biopsychology, Faculty of Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, 
      Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum 44780, Federal Republic of Germany. 
      Martina.Manns@rub.de
FAU - Freund, Nadja
AU  - Freund N
FAU - Leske, Oliver
AU  - Leske O
FAU - Gunturkun, Onur
AU  - Gunturkun O
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - United States
TA  - Dev Neurobiol
JT  - Developmental neurobiology
JID - 101300215
RN  - 0 (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor)
RN  - 0 (Calbindins)
RN  - 0 (S100 Calcium Binding Protein G)
RN  - EC 3.6.5.2 (ras Proteins)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Blotting, Western
MH  - Brain/drug effects/embryology/metabolism
MH  - Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor/administration & dosage/*pharmacology
MH  - Calbindins
MH  - Columbidae/anatomy & histology/embryology/*physiology
MH  - Discrimination Learning/drug effects
MH  - Embryo, Nonmammalian/drug effects/embryology/physiology
MH  - Female
MH  - Functional Laterality/*drug effects
MH  - Immunohistochemistry
MH  - Neurons/cytology/drug effects/metabolism
MH  - S100 Calcium Binding Protein G/metabolism
MH  - Superior Colliculi/cytology/drug effects/embryology
MH  - Visual Pathways/*drug effects/embryology/physiology
MH  - ras Proteins/metabolism
EDAT- 2008/05/29 09:00
MHDA- 2008/08/23 09:00
CRDT- 2008/05/29 09:00
PHST- 2008/05/29 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2008/08/23 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2008/05/29 09:00 [entrez]
AID - 10.1002/dneu.20647 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Dev Neurobiol. 2008 Jul;68(8):1123-34. doi: 10.1002/dneu.20647.