ArticleCurrent biology : CB2021
Homeostatic synaptic scaling establishes the specificity of an associative memory.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers.
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41 citing papers in PubMed, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Transcriptomic and de novo proteomic analyses of organotypic entorhino-hippocampal tissue cultures reveal changes in metabolic and signaling regulators in TTX-induced synaptic plasticity.Molecular brain · 2024Article
- Hibernation reduces GABA signaling in the brainstem to enhance motor activity of breathing at cool temperatures.BMC biology · 2024Article
- Memory engram stability and flexibility.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Review
- Hibernation reduces GABA signaling in the brainstem to enhance motor activity of breathing at cool temperatures.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Scopolamine infusion in the basolateral amygdala after saccharin intake induces conditioned taste avoidance in rats.Psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- A neural mechanism for learning from delayed postingestive feedback.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
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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 establishment of memory specificity. We used conditioned taste aversion (CTA) learning, a form of associative learning that relies on Hebbian mechanisms within gustatory cortex (GC), to show that animals conditioned to avoid saccharin initially generalized this aversion to other novel tastants. Specificity of the aversion to saccharin emerged slowly over a time course of many hours and was associated with synaptic scaling down of excitatory synapses onto conditioning-active neuronal ensembles within gustatory cortex. Blocking synaptic scaling down in the gustatory cortex enhanced the persistence of synaptic strength increases induced by conditioning and prolonged the duration of memory generalization. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that synaptic scaling is crucial for sculpting the specificity of an associative memory and suggest that the relative strengths of Hebbian and homeostatic plasticity can modulate the balance between stable memory formation and memory generalization.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.