Non-Hebbian Synaptic Plasticity Induced by Repetitive Postsynaptic Action Potentials

Modern theories on memory storage have mainly focused on Hebbian long-term potentiation (LTP), which requires coincident activation of presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons for its induction. In addition to Hebbian LTP, the roles of non-Hebbian plasticity have also been predicted by some neuronal network models. However, still only a few pieces of evidence have been presented for the presence of such plasticity. In this study, we show in mouse hippocampal slices that LTP can be induced by postsynaptic repetitive depolarization alone in the absence of presynaptic inputs. The induction was dependent on voltage-dependent calcium channels instead of NMDA receptors (NMDARs), whereas the expression mechanism was shared with conventional NMDAR-dependent LTP. During the potentiation, the amplitude of spontaneous EPSCs was increased, suggesting a novel neuron-wide nature of this form of LTP. Furthermore, we also successfully induced LTP with trains of action potentials, which supported the possible existence of depolarizing pulse-induced LTP in vivo. Based on these findings, we suggest a model in which neuron-wide LTP works in concert with synapse-specific Hebbian plasticity to help information processing in memory formation.