In vivo cocaine experience generates silent synapses.
Studies over the past decade have enunciated silent synapses as prominent cellular substrates for synaptic plasticity in the developing brain. However, little is known about whether silent synapses can be generated postdevelopmentally. Here, we demonstrate that highly salient in vivo experience, such as exposure to cocaine, generates silent synapses in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell, a key brain region mediating addiction-related learning and memory. Furthermore, this cocaine-induced generation of silent synapses is mediated by membrane insertions of new, NR2B-containing N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptors (NMDARs). These results provide evidence that silent synapses can be generated de novo by in vivo experience and thus may act as highly efficient neural substrates for the subsequent experience-dependent synaptic plasticity underlying extremely long-lasting memory.
Huang
Yanhua H
YH
Program in Neuroscience, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-6520, USA.
Lin
Ying
Y
Mu
Ping
P
Lee
Brian R
BR
Brown
Travis E
TE
Wayman
Gary
G
Marie
Helene
H
Liu
Wenhua
W
Yan
Zhen
Z
Sorg
Barbara A
BA
Schlüter
Oliver M
OM
Zukin
R Suzanne
RS
Dong
Yan
Y
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001703:Biophysics; D003042:Cocaine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018765:Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008297:Male; D009154:Mutation; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000187:drug effects*; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques / Q000379:methods; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D013569:Synapses / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D014162:Transfection
D018765:Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors; C409466:NR1 NMDA receptor; C121001:NR2B NMDA receptor; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D003042:Cocaine