title: Sleep to upscale, sleep to downscale: balancing homeostasis and plasticity.
abstract: The synaptic homeostasis hypothesis of sleep proposes that slow wave sleep (SWS) causes downscaling of synaptic networks potentiated during information uptake in prior wakefulness. Two studies in Neuron challenge this mechanism. Chauvette et al. (2012) show that SWS mediates an up- rather than downregulation of excitatory postsynaptic potential responses. Grosmark et al. (2012) find that downscaling in hippocampal networks might be mediated through REM sleep theta rather than SWS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany. jan.born@uni-tuebingen.de
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Born
authors.forename: Gordon B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Feld
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D056547:CA1 Region, Hippocampal / Q000166:cytology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000166:cytology*; D013788:Thalamus / Q000502:physiology*; D013826:Theta Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*