Heterosynaptic plasticity in the neocortex

Dopamine triggers heterosynaptic plasticity.

As a classic neuromodulator, dopamine has long been thought to modulate, rather than trigger, synaptic plasticity. In contrast, our present results demonstrate that within the parallel projections of dopaminergic and GABAergic terminals from the ventral tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens core (NAcCo), action-potential-activated release of dopamine heterosynaptically triggers LTD at GABAerg...

Ethell Dendritic Plasticity in the Adult Neocortex

Heterosynaptic plasticity prevents runaway synaptic dynamics.

Spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) and other conventional Hebbian-type plasticity rules are prone to produce runaway dynamics of synaptic weights. Once potentiated, a synapse would have higher probability to lead to spikes and thus to be further potentiated, but once depressed, a synapse would tend to be further depressed. The runaway synaptic dynamics can be prevented by precisely balanc...

Dendritic plasticity in the adult neocortex.

Dendrites are a major determinant of how neurons integrate and process incoming information, and thus, they play a vital role in the functional properties of neural circuits. During the past 30 years, it has become clear that the functional organization of the adult neocortex (and other parts of the brain) is dynamic and can change in response to experimental manipulations that affect cortical ...

Heterosynaptic modulation of motor cortical plasticity in human.

Inductions of long-term potentiation (LTP) and depression (LTD) are modulated if they are preceded by a priming protocol, in a manner consistent with metaplasticity. Depotentiation refers to reversal of LTP by a subsequent protocol that has no effect by itself. Paired associative stimulation (PAS) at interstimulus interval of 25 ms (PAS25) and 10 ms (PAS10) produces spike timing-dependent LTP-l...