LTP promotes a selective long-term stabilization and clustering of dendritic spines.

ABSTRACT: Dendritic spines are the main postsynaptic site of excitatory contacts between neurons in the central nervous system. On cortical neurons, spines undergo a continuous turnover regulated by development and sensory activity. However, the functional implications of this synaptic remodeling for network properties remain currently unknown. Using repetitive confocal imaging on hippocampal organotypic cultures, we find that learning-related patterns of activity that induce long-term potentiation act as a selection mechanism for the stabilization and localization of spines. Through a lasting N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor and protein synthesis-dependent increase in protrusion growth and turnover, induction of plasticity promotes a pruning and replacement of nonactivated spines by new ones together

SUBMITTER: De Roo M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2531136 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature