Abstract
Sensory loss leads to widespread adaptation of neural circuits to mediate cross-modal plasticity, which allows the organism to better utilize the remaining senses to guide behavior. While cross-modal interactions are often thought to engage multisensory areas, cross-modal plasticity is often prominently observed at the level of the primary sensory cortices. One dramatic example is from functional imaging studies in humans where cross-modal recruitment of the deprived primary sensory cortex has been observed during the processing of the spared senses. In addition, loss of a sensory modality can lead to enhancement and refinement of the spared senses, some of which have been attributed to compensatory plasticity of the spared sensory cortices. Cross-modal plasticity is not restricted to early sensory loss but is also observed in adults, which suggests that it engages or enables plasticity mechanisms available in the adult cortical circuit. Because adult cross-modal plasticity is observed without gross anatomical connectivity changes, it is thought to occur mainly through functional plasticity of pre-existing circuits. The underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms involve activity-dependent homeostatic and Hebbian mechanisms. A particularly attractive mechanism is the sliding threshold metaplasticity model because it innately allows neurons to dynamically optimize their feature selectivity. In this mini review, I will summarize the cellular and molecular mechanisms that mediate cross-modal plasticity in the adult primary sensory cortices and evaluate the metaplasticity model as an effective framework to understand the underlying mechanisms.
1. Introduction
Cross-modal plasticity refers to changes in brain function following a sensory loss that allows the spared senses to be used more effectively to guide behavior. There are two main changes: cross-modal recruitment of the brain areas that serve the lost sensory modality and compensatory plasticity of the brain areas that process the spared senses (Figure 1). Cross-modal recruitment has been observed in blind subjects where braille reading activates the deprived visual cortex (Sadato et al., 1996; ; ) and in deaf subjects where visual stimuli activate the deprived auditory cortex (Sandmann et al., 2012). This functional cross-modal recruitment of the deprived cortices is thought to enhance the processing of the remaining senses by increasing the cortical territory. This idea stems from the notion that cortical circuits are functionally equivalent and can process any sensory information presented to them. One of the supporting evidence for the functional equivalence of cortical circuits comes from a study, which rewired visual inputs to the primary auditory cortex (A1) of ferrets during early development causing visually guided behavior to become dependent on A1 (von Melchner et al., 2000). However, primary sensory cortices can be quite specialized in their anatomical organization, for example, barrel cortex in rodents and ocular dominance columns present in primary visual cortex (V1) of some carnivores and primates. Whether such anatomical specializations may affect the functional equivalence of cortical processing is unclear. In addition to the cross-modal recruitment, compensatory plasticity of the spared sensory areas is thought to allow refinement and increase the sensitivity of the spared sensory systems (; Sterr et al., 1998a,b; ; ).
FIGURE 1
In animal models, early sensory loss results in cross-modal anatomical changes to the primary sensory cortices, especially of thalamocortical inputs (
2. Metaplasticity
Metaplasticity refers to the regulation of synaptic plasticity (
FIGURE 2

Metaplasticity sliding threshold model to explain adult cross-modal plasticity. Sliding threshold model can account for synaptic plasticity observed in the deprived sensory cortex (cross-modal recruitment) and the spared sensory cortices (compensatory plasticity). (Lower right panel) The sliding threshold model states that when past activity is low, the synaptic modification threshold (θm) slides down (from θM–θM′). This is expected to be the case in primary visual cortex (V1) with vision loss. Lower θm (θM′) now allows the second strongest input (cyan, 2), which carries non-visual input, to potentiate. This may recruit V1 to process other sensory inputs in the absence of vision. The weakest input (green, 3) is still below the lowered θm (θM′), hence stay in the LTD zone. This allows the neurons to maintain selectivity for the newly adopted feature (cyan, 2). (Lower left panel) According to the sliding threshold model, an increase in past activity slides up θm (from θM–θM″) to limit LTP induction and increase the range in which LTD can be induced. Vision loss in adults potentiates feedforward synapses in primary auditory cortex (A1) and reduces inhibition in the auditory thalamus (Figure 1), which is predicted to increase input activity to A1 L2/3 leading to a higher θm (θM″). This causes activity from only the strongest input (pink, 1) to exceed the new θm (θM″) to produce LTP, while the second strongest input (cyan, 2) now falls below the new θm (θM″) and undergoes LTD. This in essence makes A1 neurons more selective, which would aid in the discrimination of auditory signals. Because the sliding threshold maintains a range for LTP and LTD, it is ideally suited to dynamically allow neurons to adopt new features in the absence of their main input to mediate cross-modal recruitment or become more feature selective when there is an increase in overall activity as would occur during compensatory plasticity. Filled upward pointing arrows, inputs with activity that surpasses θm, which will undergo LTP. Open downward pointing arrows, inputs with activity that falls below θm, which will undergo LTD.
One of the main features of the sliding threshold model is the development of feature selectivity by LTP and LTD. Stronger inputs that exceed the θm undergo LTP, while weaker inputs that fail to produce sufficient postsynaptic activity are depressed via LTD. Thus neurons “select” the dominant input, at the expense of other weaker inputs. The ability of sensory cortical neurons to express feature selectivity is critical for sensory processing by enabling discrimination of distinct inputs to generate a percept of a certain feature in the sensory environment. While the initial setup of feature selectivity arises from the developmental organization of axonal projections based on guidance cues (
At a molecular level, the sliding threshold is implemented by alterations in either the induction or the expression mechanisms of LTP/LTD. The initial postulate of the sliding threshold model stated a horizontal shift of the synaptic modification function (Figure 2), but now there is evidence that the synaptic modification function could shift vertically (Seol et al., 2007;
Next, I will review the synaptic mechanisms of cross-modal plasticity in the adult primary sensory cortices and discuss how the horizontal shift in synaptic modification function could account for the observed findings.
3. Cross-modal synaptic plasticity in adult primary sensory cortices
In the adult primary sensory cortices, the superficial layers (L2/3) are likely a major substrate for adult cross-modal plasticity. L2/3 synapses retain their ability to undergo LTP and LTD as well as homeostatic synaptic plasticity into adulthood (
3.1. Synaptic plasticity of the deprived sensory cortex
Even a short duration of sensory loss impacts normal development (Sengpiel and Kind, 2002;
Key distinguishing features of synaptic scaling and sliding threshold model are dependence on activity, especially of NMDARs, and input-specific nature of plasticity. Inactivity-driven synaptic scaling was first demonstrated in neuronal cultures upon pharmacological blockade of activity using tetrodotoxin (TTX) or AMPAR blockers (
According to the sliding threshold model, loss of a major input, such as visual input to V1 neurons, is expected to decrease the overall neuronal activity (Figure 2). If this persists, the theory states that θm will slide down, which allows a subset of previously weak inputs to cross the lowered θm and strengthen via LTP. This allows V1 neurons, devoid of visual inputs, to adopt these newly potentiated inputs as their main driver. Inputs with activity below the new θm will still undergo LTD, which permits V1 neurons to maintain selectivity to the newly adopted inputs. Therefore, the sliding threshold model enables neurons to dynamically adopt new features based on the changes in the landscape of sensory experience. Particularly for cross-modal plasticity, the metaplasticity model allows V1 neurons to respond to non-visual activity carried by the newly potentiated inputs. This could serve as a substrate for cross-modal recruitment observed in blind subjects (Sadato et al., 1996;
3.2. Synaptic plasticity of the spared sensory cortices
Plasticity of the spared primary sensory cortices is thought to refine the processing of the spared sensory inputs, improving discrimination, and detection. At a cellular level, cross-modal sensory loss strengthens feedforward connections of spared primary sensory cortices (Figure 1). For example, depriving vision of adult mice potentiates the thalamocortical synapses in L4 and L4–L2/3 synapses in A1 (
L4–L2/3 synapses, unlike thalamocortical synapses, retain plasticity in adults (
Concomitantly, cross-modal sensory deprivation reduces the strength of lateral intracortical synapses to L2/3 neurons (
4. Conclusions
The sliding threshold model is compatible with experimental observations of synaptic plasticity related to both cross-modal recruitment and compensatory plasticity. Viewing cross-modal plasticity in the framework of sliding threshold presents testable predictions. Because the synaptic plasticity is ultimately driven by NMDAR-dependent Hebbian modification in accordance with the newly defined synaptic modification threshold, it suggests that cross-modal plasticity will be dependent on sensory experience in the spared modalities. Such requirement of experience may explain the varied observations of the outcome of cross-modal plasticity in human subjects, especially when a sensory modality is lost later in life (
5. Nomenclature
A1, primary auditory cortex; AMPAR, α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor; cAMP, cyclic adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate; dLGN, dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus; GluN2A, glutamate ionotropic receptor NMDA type 2A; GluN2B, glutamate ionotropic receptor NMDA type subunit 2B; L2/3, layer 2/3; L4, layer 4; L5, layer 5; LTD, long-term depression; LTP, long-term potentiation; mEPSCs, miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents; MGBv, ventral portion of medial geniculate body; NMDAR, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor; NR2A, NMDAR 2A subunit; NR2B, NMDAR 2B subunit; PLC, phospholipase C; TRN, thalamic reticular nucleus; TTX, tetrodotoxin; V1, primary visual cortex; θm, synaptic modification threshold.
Statements
Author contributions
H-KL synthesized and conceptualized the ideas and wrote the manuscript.
Funding
This work was supported by the NIH grant R01-EY014882 to H-KL.
Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Alfredo Kirkwood for helpful discussions.
Conflict of interest
The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
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Summary
Keywords
cross-modal plasticity, cortical plasticity, sensory experience, homeostatic synaptic plasticity, sliding threshold, LTP, LTD, adult plasticity
Citation
Lee H-K (2023) Metaplasticity framework for cross-modal synaptic plasticity in adults. Front. Synaptic Neurosci. 14:1087042. doi: 10.3389/fnsyn.2022.1087042
Received
01 November 2022
Accepted
19 December 2022
Published
06 January 2023
Volume
14 - 2022
Edited by
Fereshteh S. Nugent, Uniformed Services University, United States
Reviewed by
Arianna Maffei, Stony Brook University, United States
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© 2023 Lee.
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*Correspondence: Hey-Kyoung Lee, heykyounglee@jhu.edu
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All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.