Neuron
Volume 18, Issue 2, February 1997, Pages 269-280
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Article
Silent Synapses during Development of Thalamocortical Inputs

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Abstract

During development, activity-dependent mechanisms are thought to contribute to the refinement of topographical projections from the thalamus to the cortex. Because activity-dependent increases in synaptic strength may contribute to the stabilization of synaptic connections, we have explored the mechanisms of long-term potentiation (LTP) at thalamocortical synapses in rat somatosensory (barrel) cortex. During early postnatal development (postnatal days 2–5), we find that a significant proportion of thalamocortical synapses are functionally silent and that these are converted to functional synapses during LTP. Silent synapses disappear by postnatal day 8–9, the exact time at which the susceptibility of these synapses to LTP is lost. These findings suggest that the activity-dependent conversion of silent to functional synapses due to correlated pre- and postsynaptic activity may contribute to the early development and refinement of thalamocortical inputs to cortex.

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