Experience-dependent compartmentalized dendritic plasticity in rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons

• Published in: Nature neuroscience Vol. 12; no. 12; pp. 1485 - 1487
• Main Authors: Makara, Judit K, Losonczy, Attila, Wen, Quan, Magee, Jeffrey C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.12.2009; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Action potentials (Electrophysiology); Action Potentials - physiology; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Animals; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Techniques; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; brief-communication; CA1 Region, Hippocampal - cytology; CA1 Region, Hippocampal - physiology; Dendrites; Dendrites - physiology; Down-Regulation - physiology; Environment; Memory - physiology; Neurobiology; Neuronal Plasticity - physiology; Neuroplasticity; Neurosciences; Physiological aspects; Potassium Channels - physiology; Propagation; Properties; Pyramidal Cells - physiology; Pyramidal Cells - ultrastructure; Rats; United States; New York; United States > US
• ISSN: 1097-6256; 1546-1726
• DOI: 10.1038/nn.2428

The excitability of individual dendritic branches is a plastic property of neurons. We found that experience in an enriched environment increased propagation of dendritic Na+ spikes in a subset of individual dendritic branches in rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons and that this effect was mainly mediated by localized downregulation of A-type K+ channel function. Thus, dendritic plasticity might be used to store recent experience in individual branches of the dendritic arbor.