Compartmentalization of Non-Synaptic Plasticity in Neurons at the Subcellular Level

Abstract

One efficient by which the nervous system responds to a diversity of external and internal signals consists of increases in the excitability of individual neurons acquired, for example, during the learning process. It is now well established that persistent non-synaptic neuronal plasticity arises after learning and, like synaptic plasticity, can serve as a substrate for long-term memory. However, it remains unknown how nonsynaptic plasticity contributes to changes in the state of the neural networks on which memory is directly dependent. Attempts to find an explanation of how non-synaptic plasticity is translated into a modified state of the neural network and altered behavior constitute one of the most important tasks in contemporary studies of learning and memory. There is also little information on the specific neuronal compartments undergoing plastic changes in the context of the morphological characteristics of a given neuron and the mechanisms regulating the efficiency of its input and output synapses when non-synaptic changes occur in cells. The present review addresses the most important questions of compartmentalization of nonsynaptic plasticity and the effects of non-synaptic plastic changes on the efficiency of the synapses of the neuron concerned.