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Circadian glucocorticoid oscillations promote learning-dependent synapse formation and maintenance

Nature Neuroscience volume 16, pages 698–705 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Excessive glucocorticoid exposure during chronic stress causes synapse loss and learning impairment. Under normal physiological conditions, glucocorticoid activity oscillates in synchrony with the circadian rhythm. Whether and how endogenous glucocorticoid oscillations modulate synaptic plasticity and learning is unknown. Here we show that circadian glucocorticoid peaks promote postsynaptic dendritic spine formation in the mouse cortex after motor skill learning, whereas troughs are required for stabilizing newly formed spines that are important for long-term memory retention. Conversely, chronic and excessive exposure to glucocorticoids eliminates learning-associated new spines and disrupts previously acquired memories. Furthermore, we show that glucocorticoids promote rapid spine formation through a non-transcriptional mechanism by means of the LIM kinase–cofilin pathway and increase spine elimination through transcriptional mechanisms involving mineralocorticoid receptor activation. Together, these findings indicate that tightly regulated circadian glucocorticoid oscillations are important for learning-dependent synaptic formation and maintenance. They also delineate a new signaling mechanism underlying these effects.

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Figure 1: Circadian glucocorticoid peaks promote spine formation after learning.
Figure 2: Circadian glucocorticoid troughs preserve newly formed spines.
Figure 3: Disruption of glucocorticoid troughs reduces learning-dependent spine pruning.
Figure 4: Chronic glucocorticoid exposure causes spine loss and memory impairment.
Figure 5: Glucocorticoids promote spine formation and pruning through distinct signaling pathways.
Figure 6: Glucocorticoids promote spine formation rapidly through non-transcriptional regulation of LIMK1-cofilin activity.

Change history

  • 06 May 2013

    In the version of this article initially published online, the glucocorticoid receptor was identified at first mention as the type I corticosteroid receptor and the mineralocorticoid receptor as the type II; the reverse is true. The error has been corrected for the print, PDF and HTML versions of this article.

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Acknowledgements

We thank B.S. McEwen and Gan laboratory members for critical comments on this manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (R01 NS047325 and a subcontract of R01MH085324) to W.-B.G. C.L. is supported by grants from the US National Institute of Mental Health (K99 MH097822) and the DeWitt Wallace Reader's Digest Foundation at Weill Cornell Medical College. F.J. and M.V.C. are supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (MH086651 and NS21072).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, Molecular Neurobiology Program, Skirball Institute, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA

    Conor Liston, Joseph M Cichon, Moses V Chao & Wen-Biao Gan

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA

    Conor Liston

  3. Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle, CNRS UMR-5203, INSERM-U661 Montpellier, France

    Freddy Jeanneteau

  4. Program in Brain and Behavior, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Zhengping Jia

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Contributions

C.L. and W.-B.G. conceived the project and designed all experiments. C.L. collected, quantified and analyzed the in vivo spine remodeling data. J.M.C. and F.J. contributed to the design of the cortical culture experiments, and J.M.C. carried them out and analyzed the results. C.L. obtained cortical biopsies and plasma samples. F.J. and M.V.C. contributed to the biochemical analysis of the samples. Z.J. developed and shared the LIMK1 knockout mouse. C.L. and W.-B.G. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Conor Liston or Wen-Biao Gan.

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Liston, C., Cichon, J., Jeanneteau, F. et al. Circadian glucocorticoid oscillations promote learning-dependent synapse formation and maintenance. Nat Neurosci 16, 698–705 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3387

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