Fig. 7.

DE-pretreatment affects S1BF activity after 7wME. Images of three adjacent zif268-mRNA labeled coronal cryosections surrounding bregma level − 1.80 mm depicting the somatosensory cortex of a sham-7wME mouse (a), a Stim-7wME mouse (b), a DE-7wME mouse (c) and a DE-Stim-7wME mouse (d). DE-pretreatment (c, d) resulted in lower zif268-levels in S1BF compared to non-DE-pretreated animals (a, b). The corresponding pseudocolor representations of signal intensity differences are displayed next to their respective ISH sections. Scale bar = 2 mm, P posterior, M medial. Relative zif268-mRNA expression levels are displayed as OD-values averaged over S1BF for upper (e) and lower layers (f). Error bars are SEM. DE-pretreated animals showed a significantly lower activity level in S1BF in both upper and lower layers compared to non-DE-pretreated animals, regardless of whether they were optogenetically stimulated or not [sham-7wME (n = 4), upper layers: average ± SEM; 81.54 ± 1.30; lower layers: 72.47 ± 2.55; DE-7wME (n = 5), upper layers: 70.18 ± 1.97; lower layers: 57.59 ± 2.78; Stim-7wME (n = 3), upper layers: 79.54 ± 1.82; lower layers: 78.11 ± 2.54; DE-Stim-7wME (n = 4), upper layers: 62.92 ± 4.37; lower layers: 65.40 ± 1.48]. **P ≤ 0.001