PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Naoki Hiratani
AU  - Tomoki Fukai
TI  - Detailed dendritic excitatory/inhibitory balance through heterosynaptic spike-timing-dependent plasticity
AID  - 10.1101/056093
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 056093
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/12/28/056093.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/12/28/056093.full
AB  - Balance between excitatory and inhibitory inputs is a key feature of cortical dynamics. Such balance is arguably preserved in dendritic branches, yet its underlying mechanism and functional roles remain unknown. Here, by considering computational models of heterosynaptic spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), we show that the detailed excitatory/inhibitory balance on dendritic branch is robustly achieved through heterosynaptic interaction between excitatory and inhibitory synapses. The model well reproduces experimental results on heterosynaptic STDP, and provides analytical insights. Furthermore, heterosynaptic STDP explains how maturation of inhibitory neurons modulates selectivity of excitatory neurons in critical period plasticity of binocular matching. Our results propose heterosynaptic STDP as a critical factor in synaptic organization and resultant dendritic computation.Significance statement Recent experimental studies have revealed that relative spike timings among neighboring Glutamatergic and GABAergic synapses on a dendritic branch significantly influences changes in synaptic efficiency of these synapses. This heterosynaptic form of spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) is potentially important for shaping the synaptic organization and computation of neurons, but its functional role remains elusive. Here, through computational modeling, we show that heterosynaptic plasticity causes the detailed balance between excitatory and inhibitory inputs on the dendrite, at the parameter regime where previous experimental results are well reproduced. Our result reveals a potential principle of GABA-driven neural circuit formation.