Early Seizures Prematurely Unsilence Auditory Synapses to Disrupt Thalamocortical Critical Period Plasticity (Cell Reports)

Early-life seizures are often associated with intellectual disability and/or autism. Sun et al. show that seizures prematurely unsilence synapses to disrupt tonotopic plasticity in auditory cortex, revealing a mechanism for the relationship between seizures and later cognitive impairment.