Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Georgetown University Medical Center, 3900 Reservoir Road, NW, Washington, DC 20057, USA.
Neural Plast. 2012;2012:718203. doi: 10.1155/2012/718203. Epub 2012 May 17.
Homeostatic plasticity has emerged as a fundamental regulatory principle that strives to maintain neuronal activity within optimal ranges by altering diverse aspects of neuronal function. Adaptation to network activity is often viewed as an essential negative feedback restraint that prevents runaway excitation or inhibition. However, the precise importance of these homeostatic functions is often theoretical rather than empirically derived. Moreover, a remarkable multiplicity of homeostatic adaptations has been observed. To clarify these issues, it may prove useful to ask: why do homeostatic mechanisms exist, what advantages do these adaptive responses confer on a given cell population, and why are there so many seemingly divergent effects? Here, we approach these questions by applying the principles of control theory to homeostatic synaptic plasticity of mammalian neurons and suggest that the varied responses observed may represent distinct functional classes of control mechanisms directed toward disparate physiological goals.
稳态可塑性已成为一个基本的调节原则，它通过改变神经元功能的各个方面来努力将神经元活动维持在最佳范围内。网络活动的适应通常被视为一种重要的负反馈抑制，以防止兴奋或抑制失控。然而，这些稳态功能的精确重要性往往是理论上的，而不是从经验中得出的。此外，还观察到了显著的多种稳态适应。为了澄清这些问题，提出以下问题可能会有所帮助：稳态机制为什么存在，这些适应性反应对特定的细胞群体有什么好处，以及为什么会有如此多看似不同的影响？在这里，我们通过将控制理论的原理应用于哺乳动物神经元的稳态突触可塑性来探讨这些问题，并提出观察到的各种反应可能代表了不同的功能控制机制类别，这些机制针对不同的生理目标。
