Neuron class–specific responses govern adaptive myelin remodeling in the neocortex

Abstract

Cellular effects of visual deprivation Myelination speeds the progress of action potentials along neuronal axons. Yang et al. studied changes in myelination in the mouse visual cortex in response to visual experience (see the Perspective by Yalçin and Monje). With normal vision, myelination is continuously remodeled. As ocular dominance shifts in response to monocular deprivation, myelination patterns change on certain inhibitory interneurons but not on excitatory callosal projection neurons. Myelin sheaths are both added and subtracted, segments of myelin elongate and contract, and preexisting oligodendrocytes make new myelin sheaths. This adaptive myelination helps to diversify neuronal function and remodel neuronal circuits in response to sensory experience. Science , this issue p. eabd2109 ; see also p. 1414