Hippocampal synapses undergo homeostatic rebalancing during sleep by a mechanism that might involve sharp-wave–ripples (SWRs). Here, a closed-loop system was devised in which onset of a SWR triggered optogenetic silencing of the hippocampal pyramidal neurons that generate SWRs. SWR silencing in mice abolished spontaneous synaptic depression in hippocampal CA1 and reduced recall in a spatial memory acquisition test, suggesting that SWRs are involved in homeostatic synaptic downscaling.
References
Norimoto, H. et al. Hippocampal ripples down-regulate synapses. Science https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao0702 (2018)
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Lewis, S. Ever-decreasing ripples. Nat Rev Neurosci 19, 184 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2018.27
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2018.27