Dendritic spine dynamics stabilize synaptic plasticity

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Dendritic spine dynamics stabilize synaptic plasticity Cian O'Donnell1*, Matthew Nolan2 and Mark Van Rossum1 1 University of Edinburgh, School of Informatics, United Kingdom 2 University of Edinburgh, Centre for Integrative Physiology, United Kingdom Long-term synaptic plasticity is believed to underlie learning and memory in the brain. At excitatory synapses, plasticity is mediated by molecular machinery that detects local calcium (Ca2+) signals in small structures called dendritic spines. For unknown reasons, spine size is tightly correlated with synaptic strength. We show theoretically that imperfect coupling between spine size and Ca2+ influx fundamentally alters synaptic stability. If Ca2+ influx is under-compensated, then strong synapses are stabilized and synaptic strength distributions are unimodal. In contrast, over-compensation of Ca2+ influx leads to binary, persistent synaptic strengths with bimodal distributions. We conclude that structural plasticity provides a simple, local and general mechanism that allows dendritic spines to foster both rapid memory formation and persistent memory storage. Keywords: computational neuroscience Conference: 4th INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics, Boston, United States, 4 Sep - 6 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Computational neuroscience Citation: O'Donnell C, Nolan M and Van Rossum M (2011). Dendritic spine dynamics stabilize synaptic plasticity. Front. Neuroinform. Conference Abstract: 4th INCF Congress of Neuroinformatics. doi: 10.3389/conf.fninf.2011.08.00006 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 17 Oct 2011; Published Online: 19 Oct 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Cian O'Donnell, University of Edinburgh, School of Informatics, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, cian@salk.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Cian O'Donnell Matthew Nolan Mark Van Rossum Google Cian O'Donnell Matthew Nolan Mark Van Rossum Google Scholar Cian O'Donnell Matthew Nolan Mark Van Rossum PubMed Cian O'Donnell Matthew Nolan Mark Van Rossum Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.