Abstract
“Neural plasticity” refers to the capacity of the nervous system to modify itself, functionally and structurally, in response to experience and injury. As the various chapters in this volume show, plasticity is a key component of neural development and normal functioning of the nervous system, as well as a response to the changing environment, aging, or pathological insult. This chapter discusses how plasticity is necessary not only for neural networks to acquire new functional properties, but also for them to remain robust and stable. The article also reviews the seminal proposals developed over the years that have driven experiments and strongly influenced concepts of neural plasticity.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Abbreviations
- AMPAR:
-
α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor
- CaMKII:
-
Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent Kinase II
- CREB:
-
3′, 5′-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) responsive element binding protein
- ECM:
-
Extracellular matrix
- LTD:
-
Long-term depression
- LTP:
-
Long-term potentiation
- NMDA:
-
N-methyl-D-aspartate
- NMDAR:
-
N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor
- PSD:
-
Postsynaptic density
References
Acklin SE, Nicholls JG (1990) Intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing properties and growth patterns of identified leech neurons in culture. J Neurosci 10(4):1082–1090
Ascher P, Nowak L (1988) The role of divalent cations in the N-methyl-D-aspartate responses of mouse central neurones in culture. J Physiol 399:247–266
Azmitia EC (2007) Cajal and brain plasticity: insights relevant to emerging concepts of mind. Brain Res Rev 55(2):395–405
Barroso-Flores J, Herrera-Valdez MA, Galarraga E, Bargas J (2017) Models of short term synaptic plasticity. Adv Exper Med Biol 1015
Belgacem YH, Borodinsky LN (2017) CREB at the crossroad of activity-dependent regulation of nervous system development and function. Adv Exper Med Biol 1015
Beltrán-Castillo S, Morgado-Valle C, Eugenín JL (2017) The onset of the fetal respiratory rhythm: an emergent property triggered by chemosensory drive? Adv Exper Med Biol 1015
Bence M, Levelt CN (2005) Structural plasticity in the developing visual system. Prog Brain Res 147:125–139. doi:10.1016/S0079-6123(04)47010-1
Berlucchi G, Buchtel HA (2009) Neuronal plasticity: historical roots and evolution of meaning. Exp Brain Res 192(3):307–319. doi:10.1007/s00221-008-1611-6
Bliss TV, Lomo T (1973) Long-lasting potentiation of synaptic transmission in the dentate area of the anaesthetized rabbit following stimulation of the perforant path. J Physiol 232(2):331–356
Bravo K, Eugenin J, Llona I (2017) Neurodevelopmental effects of serotonin on the brainstem respiratory network. Adv Exper Med Biol 1015
Brown TH, Kairiss EW, Keenan CL (1990) Hebbian synapses: biophysical mechanisms and algorithms. Annu Rev Neurosci 13:475–511. doi:10.1146/annurev.ne.13.030190.002355
Burrone J, Murthy VN (2003) Synaptic gain control and homeostasis. Curr Opin Neurobiol 13(5):560–567
Caroni P, Chowdhury A, Lahr M (2014) Synapse rearrangements upon learning: from divergent-sparse connectivity to dedicated sub-circuits. TINS 37(10):604–614. doi:10.1016/j.tins.2014.08.011
Collingridge GL, Kehl SJ, McLennan H (1983) Excitatory amino acids in synaptic transmission in the Schaffer collateral-commissural pathway of the rat hippocampus. J Physiol 334:33–46
Collingridge GL, Peineau S, Howland JG, Wang YT (2010) Long-term depression in the CNS. Nat Rev Neurosci 11(7):459–473. doi:10.1038/nrn2867
Constantine-Paton M (2008) Pioneers of cortical plasticity: six classic papers by Wiesel and Hubel. J Neurophysiol 99(6):2741–2744. doi:10.1152/jn.00061.2008
Cramer SC, Sur M, Dobkin BH, O’Brien C, Sanger TD, Trojanowski JQ, Rumsey JM, Hicks R, Cameron J, Chen D, Chen WG, Cohen LG, deCharms C, Duffy CJ, Eden GF, Fetz EE, Filart R, Freund M, Grant SJ, Haber S, Kalivas PW, Kolb B, Kramer AF, Lynch M, Mayberg HS, McQuillen PS, Nitkin R, Pascual-Leone A, Reuter-Lorenz P, Schiff N, Sharma A, Shekim L, Stryker M, Sullivan EV, Vinogradov S (2011) Harnessing neuroplasticity for clinical applications. Brain 134(Pt 6):1591–1609. doi:10.1093/brain/awr039
Davis GW (2006) Homeostatic control of neural activity: from phenomenology to molecular design. Annu Rev Neurosci 29:307–323. doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.28.061604.135751
Davis GW, Bezprozvanny I (2001) Maintaining the stability of neural function: a homeostatic hypothesis. Annu Rev Physiol 63:847–869. doi:10.1146/annurev.physiol.63.1.847
Davis GW, Goodman CS (1998) Synapse-specific control of synaptic efficacy at the terminals of a single neuron. Nature 392(6671):82–86. doi:10.1038/32176
Delgado-García JM, Gruart A (2017) Learning as a functional state of the brain: studies in wild-type and transgenic animals. Adv Exper Med Biol 1015
Doidge N (2009) The brain that changes itself. Penguin Group, New York/Toronto/London/Dublin/Victoria/New Delhi/Johannesburg
Duffau H (2016) A two-level model of interindividual anatomo-functional variability of the brain and its implications for neurosurgery. Cortex 86:303–313. doi:10.1016/j.cortex. 2015. 12.009
Fauth M, Tetzlaff C (2016) Opposing effects of neuronal activity on structural plasticity. Front Neuroanat 10:75. doi:10.3389/fnana.2016.00075
Feldman DE (2009) Synaptic mechanisms for plasticity in neocortex. Annu Rev Neurosci 32:33–55. doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.051508.135516
Frischknecht R, Chang KJ, Rasband MN, Seidenbecher CI (2014) Neural ECM molecules in axonal and synaptic homeostatic plasticity. Prog Brain Res 214:81–100. doi:10.1016/B978-0-444-63486-3.00004-9
Gershenson C (2012) Guiding the self-organization of random Boolean networks. Theor Biosci 131(3):181–191. doi:10.1007/s12064-011-0144-x
González A, Herrera G, Ugarte G, Piña R, Pertusa M, Orio P, Madrid R (2017) IKD current in cold transduction and damage-triggered cold hypersensitivity. Adv Exper Med Biol 1015
González-Mariscal G, Melo AI (2017) Bidirectional effects of mother-young contact on the maternal and neonatal brains. Adv Exper Med Biol 1015
Hebb D (1949) The organization of behavior: a neurophysiological theory. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah/London
Hubel DH, Wiesel TN (1965) Binocular interaction in striate cortex of kittens reared with artificial squint. J Neurophysiol 28(6):1041–1059
Hubel DH, Wiesel TN (1970) The period of susceptibility to the physiological effects of unilateral eye closure in kittens. J Physiol 206(2):419–436
Huganir RL, Nicoll RA (2013) AMPARs and synaptic plasticity: the last 25 years. Neuron 80(3):704–717. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2013.10.025
Ito M, Sakurai M, Tongroach P (1982) Climbing fibre induced depression of both mossy fibre responsiveness and glutamate sensitivity of cerebellar Purkinje cells. J Physiol 324:113–134
Jahr CE, Stevens CF (1987) Glutamate activates multiple single channel conductances in hippocampal neurons. Nature 325(6104):522–525. doi:10.1038/325522a0
Jen E (2003) Stable or robust? What’s the difference? Complexity 8(3):12–18. doi:10.1002/cplx.10077
Kaas JH, Merzenich MM, Killackey HP (1983) The reorganization of somatosensory cortex following peripheral nerve damage in adult and developing mammals. Annu Rev Neurosci 6:325–356. doi:10.1146/annurev.ne.06.030183.001545
Kaiser M (2007) Brain architecture: a design for natural computation. Philos Trans R Soc A Mat Phys Eng 365(1861):3033–3045. doi:10.1098/rsta.2007.0007
Kelsch W, Sim S, Lois C (2010) Watching synaptogenesis in the adult brain. Annu Rev Neurosci 33:131–149. doi:10.1146/annurev-neuro-060909-153252
Kitano H (2007) Towards a theory of biological robustness. Mol Syst Biol 3:137. doi:10.1038/msb4100179
Latash LP, Latash ML, Meijer OG (2000) 30 years later: on the problem of the relation between structure and function in the brain from a contemporary viewpoint (1996), part II. Mot Control 4(2):125–149
Le Magueresse C, Monyer H (2013) GABAergic interneurons shape the functional maturation of the cortex. Neuron 77(3):388–405. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2013.01.011
Levine DN (2007) Sherrington’s “the integrative action of the nervous system”: a centennial appraisal. J Neurol Sci 253(1–2):1–6. doi:10.1016/j.jns.2006.12.002
Lisman J (2017) Glutamatergic synapses are structurally and biochemically complex because of multiple plasticity processes: long-term potentiation, long-term depression, short-term potentiation and scaling. Philos Trans R Soc Lond Ser B Biol Sci 372(1715). doi:10.1098/rstb.2016.0260
Llona I, Farias P, Troc-Gajardo JL (2017) Early postnatal development of somastostatinergic systems in brainstem respiratory network. Adv Exper Med Biol 1015
Luco JV, Aranda LC (1964) An electrical correlate to the process of learning. Exp Blatta Orientalis. Nature 201:1330–1331
Luco JV, Aranda LC (1966) Reversibility of an electrical correlate to the process of learning. Nature 209:205–206
Lynch G, Larson J, Kelso S, Barrionuevo G, Schottler F (1983) Intracellular injections of EGTA block induction of hippocampal long-term potentiation. Nature 305(5936):719–721
Malabou C (2008) What should we do with our brain? Fordham University Press, New York
Malenka RC, Bear MF (2004) LTP and LTD: an embarrassment of riches. Neuron 44(1):5–21. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2004.09.012
Malinow R, Miller JP (1986) Postsynaptic hyperpolarization during conditioning reversibly blocks induction of long-term potentiation. Nature 320(6062):529–530. doi:10.1038/320529a0
Marder E, Goaillard JM (2006) Variability, compensation and homeostasis in neuron and network function. Nat Rev Neurosci 7(7):563–574. doi:10.1038/nrn1949
Marder E, Prinz AA (2002) Modeling stability in neuron and network function: the role of activity in homeostasis. BioEssays 24(12):1145–1154. doi:10.1002/bies.10185
Marder E, Prinz AA (2003) Current compensation in neuronal homeostasis. Neuron 37(1):2–4
Marichal N, Reali C, Rehermann MI, Trujillo-Cenóz O, Russo RE (2017) Progenitors in the ependyma of the spinal cord: a potential resource for self-repair after injury. Adv Exper Med Biol 1015
Mayer ML, Westbrook GL, Guthrie PB (1984) Voltage-dependent block by Mg2+ of NMDA responses in spinal cord neurones. Nature 309(5965):261–263
Merzenich MM, Nahum M, Van Vleet TM (2013) Neuroplasticity: introduction. Prog Brain Res 207:xxi–xxvi. doi:10.1016/B978-0-444-63327-9.10000-1
Morgado-Valle C, Beltran-Parrazal L (2017) Respiratory rhythm generation: the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Adv Exper Med Biol 1015
Muller D, Nikonenko I, Jourdain P, Alberi S (2002) LTP, memory and structural plasticity. Curr Mol Med 2(7):605–611
Nicoll RA, Kauer JA, Malenka RC (1988) The current excitement in long-term potentiation. Neuron 1(2):97–103
Nowak L, Bregestovski P, Ascher P, Herbet A, Prochiantz A (1984) Magnesium gates glutamate-activated channels in mouse central neurones. Nature 307(5950):462–465
Pallarés ME, Antonelli MC (2017) Prenatal stress and neurodevelopmental plasticity: relevance to psychopathology. Adv Exper Med Biol 1015
Peña-Ortega F (2017) Neural network reconfigurations: the changes of the respiratory network by hypoxia as example. Adv Exper Med Biol 1015
Perez-Otano I, Ehlers MD (2005) Homeostatic plasticity and NMDA receptor trafficking. TINS 28(5):229–238. doi:10.1016/j.tins.2005.03.004
Stahnisch FW, Nitsch R (2002) Santiago Ramon y Cajal’s concept of neuronal plasticity: the ambiguity lives on. TINS 25(11):589–591
Stelling J, Sauer U, Szallasi Z, Doyle FJ 3rd, Doyle J (2004) Robustness of cellular functions. Cell 118(6):675–685. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2004.09.008
Sweatt JD (2016) Neural plasticity & behavior – sixty years of conceptual advances. J Neurochem. doi:10.1111/jnc.13580
Takesian AE, Hensch TK (2013) Balancing plasticity/stability across brain development. Prog Brain Res 207:3–34. doi:10.1016/B978-0-444-63327-9.00001-1
Torrealba F, Madrid C, Contreras M, Gómez K (2017) Plasticity in the interoceptive system. Adv Exper Med Biol 1015
Turrigiano GG (1999) Homeostatic plasticity in neuronal networks: the more things change, the more they stay the same. TINS 22(5):221–227
Turrigiano GG (2008) The self-tuning neuron: synaptic scaling of excitatory synapses. Cell 135(3):422–435. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2008.10.008
Turrigiano GG, Nelson SB (2000) Hebb and homeostasis in neuronal plasticity. Curr Opin Neurobiol 10(3):358–364
Turrigiano GG, Nelson SB (2004) Homeostatic plasticity in the developing nervous system. Nat Rev Neurosci 5(2):97–107. doi:10.1038/nrn1327
Turrigiano GG, Leslie KR, Desai NS, Rutherford LC, Nelson SB (1998) Activity-dependent scaling of quantal amplitude in neocortical neurons. Nature 391(6670):892–896. doi:10.1038/36103
von Bernhardi R, Eugenin-von Bernhardi J, Flores B, Eugenin J (2016) Glial cells and integrity of the nervous system. Adv Exp Med Biol 949:1–24. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-40764-7_1
Wagner A (2005) Robustness and evolvability in living systems. In: Princeton Studies in Complexity, Levin SA, Strogatz SH (eds). Princeton University Press, Princeton
Wiggins S (1990) Introduction to applied nonlinear dynamical systems and chaos. Springer, New York. doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-4067-7
Wigstrom H, Gustafsson B, Huang YY, Abraham WC (1986) Hippocampal long-term potentiation is induced by pairing single afferent volleys with intracellularly injected depolarizing current pulses. Acta Physiol Scand 126(2):317–319. doi:10.1111/j.1748-1716.1986.tb07822.x
Wong M (2005) Advances in the pathophysiology of developmental epilepsies. Semin Pediat Neurol 12(2):72–87
Yin J, Yuan Q (2014) Structural homeostasis in the nervous system: a balancing act for wiring plasticity and stability. Front Cell Neurosci 8:439. doi:10.3389/fncel.2014.00439
Zielinski K (2006) Jerzy Konorski on brain associations. Acta Neurobiol Exp 66(1):75–84. discussion 85–90, 95–77
Acknowledgment
Grants Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT) # 1171434 (JE) and 1171645 (RvB), DICYT-USACH (JE).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
von Bernhardi, R., Bernhardi, L.Ev., Eugenín, J. (2017). What Is Neural Plasticity?. In: von Bernhardi, R., Eugenín, J., Muller, K. (eds) The Plastic Brain. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1015. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62817-2_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62817-2_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62815-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62817-2
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)