PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Matthias H. Hennig
AU  - John Grady
AU  - James van Coppenhagen
AU  - Evelyne Sernagor
TI  - Age-dependent Homeostatic Plasticity of GABAergic Signaling in Developing Retinal Networks
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3112-11.2011
DP  - 2011 Aug 24
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 12159--12164
VI  - 31
IP  - 34
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/34/12159.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/34/12159.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2011 Aug 24; 31
AB  - Developing retinal ganglion cells fire in correlated spontaneous bursts, resulting in propagating waves with robust spatiotemporal features preserved across development and species. Here we investigate the effects of homeostatic adaptation on the circuits controlling retinal waves. Mouse retinal waves were recorded in vitro for up to 35 h with a multielectrode array in presence of the GABAA antagonist bicuculline, allowing us to obtain a precise, time-resolved characterization of homeostatic effects in this preparation. Experiments were performed at P4–P6, when GABAA signaling is depolarizing in ganglion cells, and at P7–P10, when GABAA signaling is hyperpolarizing. At all ages, bicuculline initially increased the wave sizes and other activity metrics. At P5–P6, wave sizes decreased toward control levels within a few hours while firing remained strong, but this ability to compensate disappeared entirely from P7 onwards. This demonstrates that homeostatic control of spontaneous retinal activity maintains specific network dynamic properties in an age-dependent manner, and suggests that the underlying mechanism is linked to GABAA signaling.