Brief Communication abstract
Nature Neuroscience 12, 1485 - 1487 (2009)
Published online: 8 November 2009 | Corrected online: 17 November 2009 | doi:10.1038/nn.2428
Experience-dependent compartmentalized dendritic plasticity in rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons
Judit K Makara1, Attila Losonczy1,2, Quan Wen1,2 & Jeffrey C Magee1
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.
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia, USA.
- Present address: Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA (A.L.), Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (Q.W.).
Correspondence to: Judit K Makara1 e-mail: makaraj@janelia.hhmi.org
Correspondence to: Jeffrey C Magee1 e-mail: mageej@janelia.hhmi.org
