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Updated: Jun 21, 2026
09:30
Assessment of Long-term Depression Induction in Adult Cerebellar Slices
Published on: October 16, 2019
Burst firing induces postsynaptic LTD at developing mossy fibre-CA3 pyramid synapses
1NICHD, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
The Journal of Physiology
|July 29, 2009
Summary
Developing hippocampal neurons use burst firing to mature connections. This activity triggers a specific form of synaptic plasticity, suggesting natural neural activity drives synapse development.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Synaptic Plasticity
- Developmental Biology
Background:
- Synaptic development relies on coordinated neural activity for synapse formation and refinement.
- Hippocampal CA3 pyramidal neurons (PYRs) show intense burst firing (BF) during early development, coinciding with mossy fiber (MF) synapse maturation.
- Previous work identified depolarization-induced long-term depression (DiLTD) at immature MF-PYR synapses, dependent on L-type voltage-gated calcium channels (L-VGCCs) but not NMDA receptors (NMDARs).
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if physiological burst firing (BF) patterns in PYRs can induce DiLTD at developing MF-PYR synapses.
- To determine if BF-induced synaptic changes share mechanisms with tonically induced DiLTD.
- To explore the role of natural network activity in MF-PYR synapse maturation.
Main Methods:
- Combined electrophysiological recordings and calcium imaging in developing hippocampal slices.
- Utilized direct current injection and intrinsic network activity to induce PYR BF patterns.
- Assessed NMDAR independence, L-VGCC dependence, and postsynaptic expression mechanisms of BF-induced synaptic plasticity.
Main Results:
- Physiologically relevant PYR BF patterns effectively activate postsynaptic L-VGCCs.
- Repetitive PYR BF induces NMDAR-independent long-term depression (LTD) at developing MF-PYR synapses.
- This BF-induced LTD is specific to developing MF-PYR synapses, PICK1-dependent, and postsynaptically expressed, similar to DiLTD.
Conclusions:
- Phasic L-VGCC activation by PYR BF can induce DiLTD at developing MF-PYR synapses.
- Natural PYR network activity patterns, specifically BF, play a crucial role in MF synapse maturation.
- This study links intrinsic neuronal activity patterns to activity-dependent synaptic development.
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