Homeostatic synaptic scaling establishes the specificity of an associative memory.

ABSTRACT: Correlation-based (Hebbian) forms of synaptic plasticity are crucial for the initial encoding of associative memories but likely insufficient to enable the stable storage of multiple specific memories within neural circuits. Theoretical studies have suggested that homeostatic synaptic normalization rules provide an essential countervailing force that can stabilize and expand memory storage capacity. Although such homeostatic mechanisms have been identified and studied for decades, experimental evidence that they play an important role in associative memory is lacking. Here, we show that synaptic scaling, a widely studied form of homeostatic synaptic plasticity that globally renormalizes synaptic strengths, is dispensable for initial associative memory formation but crucial for the establis

SUBMITTER: Wu CH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8187282 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature