Brown University, Department of Neuroscience, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Nat Neurosci. 2011 May;14(5):548-50. doi: 10.1038/nn.2772. Epub 2011 Mar 27.
We found a previously unknown form of homeostatic synaptic plasticity in multisensory neurons in the optic tectum of Xenopus laevis tadpoles. Individual tectal neurons are known to receive converging inputs from multiple sensory modalities. We observed that long-term alterations in either visual or mechanosensory activity in vivo resulted in homeostatic changes specific to each sensory modality. In contrast with typical forms of homeostatic synaptic plasticity, such as synaptic scaling, we found that this type of plasticity occurred in a pathway-specific manner that is more reminiscent of hebbian-type plasticity.
我们在非洲爪蟾（Xenopus laevis）幼蛙的视顶盖（optic tectum）中的多感觉神经元中发现了一种以前未知的稳态突触可塑性形式。已知单个顶盖神经元接收来自多种感觉模式的会聚输入。我们观察到，体内视觉或机械感觉活动的长期改变导致了每种感觉模式特有的稳态变化。与典型的稳态突触可塑性形式（如突触缩放）不同，我们发现这种类型的可塑性以更类似于赫布型可塑性的方式发生在特定通路中。
