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Author Notes:

Correspondence should be addressed to Sarah L. Pallas, Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, Department of Biology, Georgia State University, 24 Peachtree Center Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30303. spallas@gsu.edu

Subjects:

Research Funding:

This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants NS046510 (P.W.), EY12696 (S.L.P.), EY12702 (B.R.), DC006864 (D.S.), DC05202 (to Zoltan Fuzessery), and DC4199 (to Karl Kandler), and National Science Foundation Grants IBN-0078110 (S.L.P.) and IOB-0616097 (P.W.).

Keywords:

  • Science & Technology
  • Life Sciences & Biomedicine
  • Neurosciences
  • Neurosciences & Neurology
  • DEPOLARIZATION-INDUCED SUPPRESSION
  • HIPPOCAMPAL PYRAMIDAL CELLS
  • DEVELOPING AUDITORY-SYSTEM
  • LATERAL SUPERIOR OLIVE
  • VISUAL-CORTEX
  • SYNAPTIC-TRANSMISSION
  • NEURAL MECHANISMS
  • GABA(A) RECEPTORS
  • SPINAL NETWORKS
  • CEREBRAL-CORTEX

Developmental plasticity of inhibitory circuitry

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Journal Title:

Journal of Neuroscience Nursing

Volume:

Volume 26, Number 41

Publisher:

, Pages 10358-10361

Type of Work:

Article | Final Publisher PDF

Abstract:

A growing body of evidence suggests that plasticity at GABAergic synapses is of critical importance during development and aging. A balance between excitation and inhibition maintains homeostasis at the neuronal and circuit levels, and inhibitory plasticity can function to drive a perturbed system toward homeostasis. Activity-dependent modification of inhibitory synaptic strength must be non-Hebbian, however, because the interaction between an inhibitory neuron and its target prevents them from firing together. Mechanisms that may underlie inhibitory plasticity will be discussed, including the possibility that it is limited to the early period when GABA/glycine release is excitatory (Ben-Ari, 2002) or that corelease of another substance alters synapses that produce inhibition (Gillespie et al., 2005). Alternatively, inhibitory synapses may decline in strength through long-term depression (Kotak et al., 2001; Chang et al., 2003), or an as-yet undiscovered mechanism may be responsible. Whatever the mechanism, it is clear that inhibitory plasticity plays an important role in activity-dependent modification of developing circuits.

Copyright information:

Copyright © 2006 Society for Neuroscience.

This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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