brain plasticity: plastic synapses (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, February 05, 2016, 21:43 (3215 days ago) @ David Turell

Synapses change as the brain develops and different functions and experiences are demanded of it:-http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160204175640.htm-"Friedlander and Saez reported that neurons whose excitatory synapses are in a certain states of plasticity, based on previous experiences, assort themselves into groups to converge onto specific individual neurons in the developing brain.-"'Individual neurons whose synapses are most likely to strengthen in response to a certain experience are more likely to connect to certain partner neurons, while those whose synapses weaken in response to a similar experience are more likely to connect to other partner neurons," Friedlander said. "The neurons whose synapses do not change at all in response to that same experience are more likely to connect to yet other partner neurons, forming a more stable but non-plastic network."-***-"When the scientists applied a pharmacological agent to the neurons that blocked synaptic inhibition, they saw that training elicited more dramatic and varied plasticity at excitatory synapses. The plasticity responses of different groups of synapses on a given neuron were more similar when inhibition was blocked, which effectively grouped together like-type neurons by their learning responses.-"'While we've known for years that neurons of similar types tend to richly interconnect, this is the first demonstration that such assortment processes apply to synaptic plasticity," Friedlander said. "Such a result has implications for enhanced learning paradigms, as well as for better understanding the dynamic network properties of the large-scale neuronal networks in the living brain.'"-Comment: More and more evidence that the brain is built to adapt to our needs.