Inhibitory Synaptic Plasticity
Since its discovery and first publication in 1973, synaptic plasticity in its most popular form – the plasticity of excitatory glutamatergic synapses – has been widely investigated. But to fully understand how brain functions develop and are maintained, t
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Melanie A. Woodin Arianna Maffei ●
Editors
Inhibitory Synaptic Plasticity
Editors Melanie A. Woodin Department of Cell and Systems Biology Ramsay Wright Zoological Laboratory University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario Canada [email protected]
Arianna Maffei Department of Neurobiology and Behavior State University of New York Stony Brook Stony Brook, New York USA [email protected]
ISBN 978-1-4419-6977-4 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-6978-1 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-6978-1 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Since its discovery and first publication in 1973, synaptic plasticity in its most popular form – the plasticity of excitatory glutamatergic synapses – has been widely investigated (Bliss and Lomo 1973; Malenka and Bear 2004). Every year hundreds of articles are published regarding the cellular, molecular and functional aspects of this fundamental form of plasticity. While it is widely accepted that excitatory plasticity is crucial for circuit refinement, learning, memory formation and storage, researchers now realize that this is not the only form of synaptic plasticity that these processes rely upon. A new idea that is slowly emerging is that multiple forms of synaptic and non-synaptic plasticity are involved in the formation, maintenance and modification of neural circuits, with all of the components acting in harmony. A surprising discovery that has yet to be explored to its full potential is an unexpected, but very prominent form of synaptic plasticity: the plasticity of inhibitory GABAergic synapses. New findings are now accumulating that show inhibitory synaptic plasticity is widespread in neural circuits throughout the brain, and the functional roles of this form of plasticity are now being described. We thought it timely to assemble a book that brings together these many new findings on inhibitory plasticity. Our goal was to effectively summarize and integrate studies that have examined the induction, expression and functional role of inhibitory synaptic plasticity at different organizational levels (from the neuron to the circuit). We soon realized that there are important common features, but also fundamental
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