title: Intravital imaging of dendritic spine plasticity.
abstract: Dendritic spines are the postsynaptic part of most excitatory synapses in the mammalian brain. Recent works have suggested that the structural and functional plasticity of dendritic spines have been associated with information coding and memories. Advances in imaging and labeling techniques enable the study of dendritic spine dynamicsin vivo. This perspective focuses on intravital imaging studies of dendritic spine plasticity in the neocortex. I will introduce imaging tools for studying spine dynamics and will further review current findings on spine structure and function under various physiological and pathological conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology; Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine; The University of Hong Kong ; Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR.
authors.forename: Cora
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sau Wan Lai
keywords: Dendritic spines; calcium imaging; functional plasticity; intravital imaging; learning and memory; structural plasticity