PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lang Wang
AU  - Arianna Maffei
TI  - Inhibitory Plasticity Dictates the Sign of Plasticity at Excitatory Synapses
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4711-13.2014
DP  - 2014 Jan 22
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 1083--1093
VI  - 34
IP  - 4
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/4/1083.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/4/1083.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2014 Jan 22; 34
AB  - The broad connectivity of inhibitory interneurons and the capacity of inhibitory synapses to be plastic make them ideal regulators of the level of excitability of many neurons simultaneously. Whether inhibitory synaptic plasticity may also contribute to the selective regulation of single neurons and local microcircuits activity has not been investigated. Here we demonstrate that in rat primary visual cortex inhibitory synaptic plasticity is connection specific and depends on the activation of postsynaptic GABAB–Gi/o protein signaling. Through the activation of this intracellular signaling pathway, inhibitory plasticity can alter the state of a single postsynaptic neuron and directly affect the induction of plasticity at its glutamatergic inputs. This interaction is modulated by sensory experience. Our data demonstrate that in recurrent circuits, excitatory and inhibitory forms of synaptic plasticity are not integrated as independent events, but interact to cooperatively drive the activity-dependent rewiring of local microcircuits.