title: Spike timing, calcium signals and synaptic plasticity.
abstract: Plasticity at central synapses depends critically on the timing of presynaptic and postsynaptic action potentials. Key initial steps in synaptic plasticity involve the back-propagation of action potentials into the dendritic tree and calcium influx that depends nonlinearly on the action potential and synaptic input. These initial steps are now better understood. In addition, recent studies of processes as diverse as gene expression and channel inactivation suggest that responses to calcium transients depend not only their amplitude, but on their time course and on the location of their origin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Mailstop 008, 415 South Street, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454-9110, USA.
authors.forename: Per Jesper
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Sjöström
authors.forename: Sacha B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Nelson
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D020013:Calcium Signaling / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure