Japanese scientists found that Otx2 homologous protein controls the critical period of brain

Japan's Institute of physics and chemistry recently released a press release, saying its scientists found that the "Otx2" gene in the brain of young mammals can control the arrival of brain critical period, which is expected to be used in the development of new therapies to reduce diseases such as amblyopia   According to Japanese media reported Monday, scientists have long found that the immature brain of mammalian newborn has the characteristics of skillfully building its own nervous system to adapt to changes in living environment, but this plasticity can only be seen in a short period of time known as the critical period Scientists once raised the young mice in the dark environment shortly after their birth, and blocked them from obtaining visual experience from the outside world The young mice not only improved their vision slowly, but also delayed the start of critical period of brain Scientists believe that visual experience can improve visual ability and promote the arrival of critical period of brain, but the arrival of critical period requires the accumulation of visual experience to a certain amount, and it needs a "scale" to measure whether this amount can meet the requirements   The Japanese Institute of physics and chemistry researchers found that this "scale" is exactly the "Otx2" gene in the brain of young mammals Under the influence of visual experience, the Otx2 homologous protein synthesized by this gene is transported from the retina to the visual cortex of the brain and stored in the interstitial cells of the visual cortex In this way, the continuous accumulation of visual experience makes the "Otx2 homologous protein" move to the brain When the "Otx2 homologous protein" accumulates to a certain amount, the brain can normally meet the threshold   In the experiment, by adjusting the amount of "Otx2 homologous protein", the researchers artificially pushed the brain into a critical period ahead of time, which in turn promoted the improvement of eyesight   The discovery of the role of the "Otx2" gene in young mammals is expected to contribute to the development of new therapies to reduce diseases such as amblyopia, the press release said.