Figures
Differential role of pre- and postsynaptic neurons in the activity-dependent control of synaptic strengths across dendrites
Neurons receive a large number of active synaptic inputs from their many presynaptic partners across their dendritic tree. However, little is known about how the relative strengths of individual synapses are juggled to effectively encode information while maintaining network homeostasis. Here, to gain insights into the basic cellular rules that drive the activity-dependent spatial distribution of pre- and postsynaptic strengths across incoming axons and dendrites, Letellier et al.Letellier et al. combine patch-clamp recordings with live-cell imaging of hippocampal pyramidal neurons in dissociated cultures and organotypic slices. The study provides evidence for a potential homeostatic mechanism by which the rapid changes in global or distant postsynaptic strengths compensate for input-specific presynaptic plasticity. The image depicts the 2D projection of a stack of confocal microscopy planes of CA3 pyramidal cells (expressing fluorescent proteins EGFP or tdTomato) making sparse recurrent connections in organotypic slices of mouse hippocampus. The color code represents the z position of the different confocal planes.
Image Credit: Mathieu Letellier
Citation: (2019) PLoS Biology Issue Image | Vol. 17(6) July 2019. PLoS Biol 17(6): ev17.i06. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pbio.v17.i06
Published: July 1, 2019
Copyright: © 2019 . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Neurons receive a large number of active synaptic inputs from their many presynaptic partners across their dendritic tree. However, little is known about how the relative strengths of individual synapses are juggled to effectively encode information while maintaining network homeostasis. Here, to gain insights into the basic cellular rules that drive the activity-dependent spatial distribution of pre- and postsynaptic strengths across incoming axons and dendrites, Letellier et al.Letellier et al. combine patch-clamp recordings with live-cell imaging of hippocampal pyramidal neurons in dissociated cultures and organotypic slices. The study provides evidence for a potential homeostatic mechanism by which the rapid changes in global or distant postsynaptic strengths compensate for input-specific presynaptic plasticity. The image depicts the 2D projection of a stack of confocal microscopy planes of CA3 pyramidal cells (expressing fluorescent proteins EGFP or tdTomato) making sparse recurrent connections in organotypic slices of mouse hippocampus. The color code represents the z position of the different confocal planes.
Image Credit: Mathieu Letellier