Ongoing in Vivo Experience Triggers Synaptic Metaplasticity in the Neocortex

doi:10.1126/science.1143808

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Ongoing in Vivo Experience Triggers Synaptic Metaplasticity in the Neocortex

Roger L. Clem,¹ Tansu Celikel,²^* Alison L. Barth¹

Abstract: In vivo experience can occlude subsequent induction of long-termpotentiation and enhance long-term depression of synaptic responses.Although a reduced capacity for synaptic strengthening may functionto prevent excessive excitation, such an effect paradoxicallyimplies that continued experience or training should not improveand may even degrade neural representations. In mice, we examinedthe effect of ongoing whisker stimulation on synaptic strengtheningat layer 4-2/3 synapses in the barrel cortex. Although N-methyl-D-aspartatereceptors were required to initiate strengthening, they subsequentlysuppressed further potentiation at these synapses in vitro andin vivo. Despite this transition, synaptic strengthening continuedwith additional sensory activity but instead required the activationof metabotropic glutamate receptors, suggesting a mechanismby which continued experience can result in increasing synapticstrength over time.

¹ Department of Biological Sciences and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
² Department of Cell Physiology, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Jahnstrasse 29, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.

^* Present address: Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Plasticity,University of Southern California, 3641 Watt Way, HNB 501, LosAngeles, CA 90089-2520, USA.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: barth{at}cmu.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:

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