Spine neck plasticity controls postsynaptic calcium signals through electrical compartmentalization
Open accessAbstract
Dendritic spines have been proposed to function as electrical compartments for the active processing of local synaptic signals. However, estimates of the resistance between the spine head and the parent dendrite suggest that compartmentalization is not tight enough to electrically decouple the synapse. Here we show in acute hippocampal slices that spine compartmentalization is initially very weak, but increases dramatically upon postsynaptic depolarization. Using NMDA receptors as voltage sensors, we provide evidence that spine necks not only regulate diffusional coupling between spines and dendrites, but also control local depolarization of the spine head. In spines with high-resistance necks, presynaptic activity alone was sufficient to trigger calcium influx through NMDA receptors and R-type calcium channels. We conclude that calcium influx into spines, a key trigger for synaptic plasticity, is dynamically regulated by spine neck plasticity through a process of electrical compartmentalization.
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Induction of plasticity results in an increase in spine size and changes in spine shape.
“Interestingly, induction of plasticity not only results in an increase in spine size (Matsuzaki et al., 2004; Tanaka et al., 2008), but also in changes in spine shape (Grunditz et al., 2008), with consequences for compartmentalization.”
From Barriers in the brain: resolving dendritic spine morphology and compartmentalization (2014) · cites this paper as Grunditz et al., 2008
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- Authors
- Grunditz, Å., Holbro, N., Tian, L., Zuo, Y., & Oertner, T. G.
- Affiliations
- Friedrich Miescher Institute (CH)
- University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
- Corresponding author
- Oertner, Thomas G.
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2008-12-10
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 50
- Pages
- 13457-13466
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC6671740
- OpenAlex
- W1974971758
- Cited by
- 157
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 3.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Ion channel regulation and function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Keywords
- dendritic spines, NMDA receptor, R-type calcium channels, synaptic plasticity, hippocampus, postsynaptic depolarization
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Dendrites, Hippocampus, Synaptic Transmission, Neuronal Plasticity, Organ Culture Techniques, Calcium Channels, Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Patch-Clamp Techniques, Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials, Calcium Signaling, Rats
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