Receptor organ damage causes loss of cortical surround inhibition without topographic map plasticity

Abstract

Following restricted peripheral damage, reorganization of adult sensory or motor cortex is believed to depend on loss of surround inhibition, which unmasks latent inputs to the deprived cortex. Here I demonstrate that limited damage to auditory receptors causes loss of functional surround inhibition in the cortex, unmasking of latent inputs and significantly altered neural coding. However, these changes do not lead to plasticity of the cortical map, defined by the most sensitive input from the receptor surface to each cortical location. Thus, in sensory cortex, loss of surround inhibition as a consequence of receptor organ damage does not necessarily result in cortical map plasticity.