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Updated: Jul 6, 2025

Preparation and Immunostaining of Myelinating Organotypic Cerebellar Slice Cultures
Published on: March 20, 2019
Homeostatic coordination and up-regulation of neural activity by activity-dependent myelination
Afroditi Talidou1,2, Paul W Frankland3,4, Donald Mabbott3,4
1Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Afroditi.Talidou@uottawa.ca.
Abstract:
Activity-dependent myelination (ADM) is a fundamental dimension of brain plasticity through which myelin changes as a function of neural activity. Mediated by structural changes in glia, ADM notably regulates axonal conduction velocity. Yet, it remains unclear how neural activity impacts myelination to orchestrate the timing of neural signalling, and how ADM shapes neural activity. We developed a model of spiking neurons enhanced with neuron-oligodendrocyte feedback and examined the relationship between ADM and neural activity. We found that ADM implements a homeostatic gain control mechanism that enhances neural firing rates and correlations through the temporal coordination of action potentials as axon lengths increase. Stimuli engage ADM plasticity to trigger bidirectional and reversible changes in conduction delays, as may occur during learning. Furthermore, ADM was found to enhance information transmission under various types of time-varying stimuli. These results highlight the role of ADM in shaping neural activity and communication.
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