Submitted on October 3, 2008
Revised on December 3, 2008
Accepted on December 3, 2008
Synapse-specific homeostatic mechanisms in the hippocampus
Katherine Elizabeth Deeg1*
1 Brown University
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: katherine_deeg{at}brown.edu.
Homeostatic synaptic plasticity allows neural circuits to function stably despite fluctuations to their inputs. Previous work has shown that excitatory synaptic strength increases globally when neuronal inputs are chronically silenced. A recent paper by Kim and Tsien (2008) describes a new type of synapse-specific homeostatic plasticity in which input silencing causes simultaneous strengthening and weakening of different populations of excitatory synapses within a hippocampal network. These seemingly antagonistic homeostatic adaptations maintain synaptic gain and preserve overall network stability by limiting harmful reverberatory bursting which may underlie epileptic seizures.
