Inhibitory connectivity defines the realm of excitatory plasticity
Open accessAbstract
Recent experiments demonstrate substantial volatility of excitatory connectivity in the absence of any learning. This challenges the hypothesis that stable synaptic connections are necessary for long-term maintenance of acquired information. Here we measure ongoing synaptic volatility and use theoretical modeling to study its consequences on cortical dynamics. We show that in the balanced cortex, patterns of neural activity are primarily determined by inhibitory connectivity, despite the fact that most synapses and neurons are excitatory. Similarly, we show that the inhibitory network is more effective in storing memory patterns than the excitatory one. As a result, network activity is robust to ongoing volatility of excitatory synapses, as long as this volatility does not disrupt the balance between excitation and inhibition. We thus hypothesize that inhibitory connectivity, rather than excitatory, controls the maintenance and loss of information over long periods of time in the volatile cortex.
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- Authors
- Mongillo, G., Rumpel, S., & Loewenstein, Y.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE)
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL)
- Corresponding author
- Mongillo, Gianluigi
- Loewenstein, Yonatan
- Venue
- Nature Neuroscience
- Published
- 2018-09-17
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1463-1470
- ISSN
- 1097-6256 (ISSN-L)
- 1546-1726
- OpenAlex
- W2889617308
- Cited by
- 148
- References
- 58
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 9.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2019-11-01)
- Open access
- green
- hal.science
- Licence
- other-oa
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-14-NEUC-0001, ANR-13-BSV4-0014)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- inhibitory connectivity, synaptic plasticity, excitation-inhibition balance, cortical dynamics, memory storage, neural activity patterns, network robustness, structure-activity relationship
- MeSH terms
- Action Potentials, Animals, Humans, Models, Neurological, Neural Inhibition, Neural Pathways, Neuronal Plasticity, Neurons, Synapses
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