Behavioral time scale synaptic plasticity underlies CA1 place fields

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 357; no. 6355; pp. 1033 - 1036
• Main Authors: Bittner, Katie C., Milstein, Aaron D., Grienberger, Christine, Romani, Sandro, Magee, Jeffrey C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 08.09.2017; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Animals; Behavioral plasticity; CA1 Region, Hippocampal - physiology; Calcium; Calcium - physiology; Dendrites; Depolarization; Female; Firing pattern; Hebbian plasticity; Hippocampal plasticity; Hippocampus; Long-Term Potentiation - physiology; Male; Memory - physiology; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Neuronal Plasticity - physiology; Plasticity; Potentiation; Synaptic plasticity; Synaptic strength; Time
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.aan3846

Learning is primarily mediated by activity-dependent modifications of synaptic strength within neuronal circuits. We discovered that place fields in hippocampal area CA1 are produced by a synaptic potentiation notably different from Hebbian plasticity. Place fields could be produced in vivo in a single trial by potentiation of input that arrived seconds before and after complex spiking. The potentiated synaptic input was not initially coincident with action potentials or depolarization. This rule, named behavioral time scale synaptic plasticity, abruptly modifies inputs that were neither causal nor close in time to postsynaptic activation. In slices, five pairings of subthreshold presynaptic activity and calcium (Ca2+) plateau potentials produced a large potentiation with an asymmetric seconds-long time course. This plasticity efficiently stores entire behavioral sequences within synaptic weights to produce predictive place cell activity.