1Department of Neurological and Motor Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
Neuroscientist. 2014 Feb;20(1):8-14. doi: 10.1177/1073858413491148. Epub 2013 Jun 10.
Neuronal death and suppression of functional synaptic inputs are well-known regressive events characterizing PNS and CNS development. In the CNS, participation of activity in synapse elimination has been known ever since the pioneering studies of Hubel and Wiesel, but only recently has a Hebb-based mechanism of spike synchrony versus asynchrony received unequivocal experimental support in the visual system. At the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), where synapse elimination was discovered, the specific function of the "timing of activity" was addressed by only one group of studies and did not receive widespread attention. Here we critically review the latest NMJ investigation advocating an "activity-independent" mechanism for synapse elimination and contrast it with an equally recent study demonstrating a key role for spike timing. Finally, we highlight how the striking similarities between the two mentioned studies on spike timing (visual system and NMJ) establish conclusively its role in the development of the nervous system in general.
神经元死亡和功能性突触输入的抑制是众所周知的退行性事件，其特征是 PNS 和中枢神经系统的发育。在中枢神经系统中，自从 Hubel 和 Wiesel 的开创性研究以来，活动在突触消除中的参与就已经为人所知，但直到最近，基于赫布的尖峰同步与异步机制才在视觉系统中得到明确的实验支持。在神经肌肉接点 (NMJ) 处，发现了突触消除，只有一组研究探讨了“活动时间”的特定功能，并没有受到广泛关注。在这里，我们批判性地回顾了最新的 NMJ 研究，该研究提倡一种“不依赖活动”的突触消除机制，并将其与最近的一项研究进行对比，该研究表明尖峰时间起着关键作用。最后，我们强调了这两个关于尖峰时间的研究（视觉系统和 NMJ）之间的惊人相似之处，如何确凿地确立了它在整个神经系统发育中的作用。
