Active hippocampal networks undergo spontaneous synaptic modification.

ABSTRACT: The brain is self-writable; as the brain voluntarily adapts itself to a changing environment, the neural circuitry rearranges its functional connectivity by referring to its own activity. How the internal activity modifies synaptic weights is largely unknown, however. Here we report that spontaneous activity causes complex reorganization of synaptic connectivity without any external (or artificial) stimuli. Under physiologically relevant ionic conditions, CA3 pyramidal cells in hippocampal slices displayed spontaneous spikes with bistable slow oscillations of membrane potential, alternating between the so-called UP and DOWN states. The generation of slow oscillations did not require fast synaptic transmission, but their patterns were coordinated by local circuit activity. In the course of

SUBMITTER: Tsukamoto-Yasui M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2082078 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature