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Unit

Laboratory of Synaptic Mechanisms

Laboratory

Related publications (30)

A bistable inhibitory optoGPCR for multiplexed optogenetic control of neural circuits

Mauro Pulin

Information is transmitted between brain regions through the release of neurotransmitters from long-range projecting axons. Understanding how the activity of such long-range connections contributes to behavior requires efficient methods for reversibly mani ...

Nature Publishing Group2024

Principles of Network Plasticity in Neocortical Microcircuits

András Ecker

Synaptic plasticity underlies our ability to learn and adapt to the constantly changing environment. The phenomenon of synapses changing their efficacy in an activity-dependent manner is often studied in small groups of neurons in vitro or indirectly throu ...

EPFL2023

Assemblies, synapse clustering and network topology interact with plasticity to explain structure-function relationships of the cortical connectome

Eilif Benjamin Muller, Michael Reimann, Marwan Muhammad Ahmed Abdellah, James Gonzalo King, András Ecker, Pramod Shivaji Kumbhar, Giuseppe Chindemi, Daniela Egas Santander, James Bryden Isbister, Ioannis Magkanaris, Sirio Bolaños Puchet, Jorge Blanco Alonso

Synaptic plasticity underlies the brain’s ability to learn and adapt. While experiments in brain slices have revealed mechanisms and protocols for the induction of plasticity between pairs of neurons, how these synaptic changes are coordinated in biologica ...

2024

Plasticity of sensory representations in the posterior insular cortex during fear learning

Denys Osypenko

Aversively-motivated associative learning allows animals to avoid harm and thus ensures survival. Aversive learning can be studied by the fear learning paradigm, in which an innocuous sensory stimulus like a tone (conditioned stimulus, CS), acquires a nega ...

EPFL2023

Modeling and simulation of neocortical micro- and mesocircuitry. Part II: Physiology and experimentation

Henry Markram, Felix Schürmann, Daniel Keller, Eilif Benjamin Muller, Michael Reimann, Werner Alfons Hilda Van Geit, Srikanth Ramaswamy, Matthias Wolf, James Gonzalo King, Alexis Arnaudon, András Ecker, Rajnish Ranjan, Jean-Denis Georges Emile Courcol, Armando Romani, Pramod Shivaji Kumbhar, Judit Planas Carbonell, Giuseppe Chindemi, Michael Emiel Gevaert, Christian Andreas Rössert, Fernando Joaquim Leite Pereira, Omar Awile, Mustafa Anil Tuncel, Daniela Egas Santander, James Bryden Isbister, Natali Barros Zulaica, Samuel Lieven D. Lapere, Sirio Bolaños Puchet, Maria Reva, Genrich Ivaska, Tanguy Pierre Louis Damart, Darshan Mandge, Joni Henrikki Herttuainen, Christoph Pokorny, Elvis Boci, Vishal Sood, Thomas Brice Delemontex, Aleksandra Zuzanna Teska, Polina Litvak, Alexander Dietz, Jorge Blanco Alonso, Gianluca Ficarelli, Weina Ji

Cortical dynamics underlie many cognitive processes and emerge from complex multi-scale interactions, which are challenging to study in vivo. Large-scale, biophysically detailed models offer a tool which can complement laboratory approaches. We present a m ...

2024

A conditional glutamatergic synaptic vesicle marker for Drosophila

Evelyne Ruchti, Brian Donal McCabe

Glutamate is a principal neurotransmitter used extensively by the nervous systems of all vertebrate and invertebrate animals. It is primarily an excitatory neurotransmitter that has been implicated in nervous system development, as well as a myriad of brai ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC2022

Modulation of working memory duration by synaptic and astrocytic mechanisms

Sophia Becker

Short-term synaptic plasticity and modulations of the presynaptic vesicle release rate are key components of many working memory models. At the same time, an increasing number of studies suggests a potential role of astrocytes in modulating higher cognitiv ...

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE2022

The matricellular protein Drosophila Cellular Communication Network Factor is required for synaptic transmission and female fertility

Evelyne Ruchti, Brian Donal McCabe

Within the extracellular matrix, matricellular proteins are dynamically expressed nonstructural proteins that interact with cell surface receptors, growth factors, and proteases, as well as with structural matrix proteins. The cellular communication networ ...

Genetics Society America2023

A conditional GABAergic synaptic vesicle marker for Drosophila

Brian Donal McCabe

Background: Throughout the animal kingdom, GABA is the principal inhibitory neurotransmitter of the nervous system. It is essential for maintaining the homeostatic balance between excitation and inhibition required for the brain to operate normally. Identi ...

2022

Homeostatic regulation of axonal Kv1.1 channels accounts for both synaptic and intrinsic modifications in the hippocampal CA3 circuit

Mickael Maurice Zbili

Homeostatic plasticity of intrinsic excitability goes hand in hand with homeostatic plasticity of synaptic transmission. However, the mechanisms linking the two forms of homeostatic regulation have not been identified so far. Using electrophysiological, im ...

National Academy of Sciences2021

Wnt5a promotes hippocampal postsynaptic development and GluN2B-induced expression via the eIF2 alpha HRI kinase

Eva Ramos Fernandez

Wnt signaling plays a key role in neurodevelopment and neuronal maturation. Specifically, Wnt5a stimulates postsynaptic assemblies, increases glutamatergic neurotransmission and, through calcium signaling, generates nitric oxide (NO). Trying to unveil the ...

Nature Research2021

Dendritic Voltage Recordings Explain Paradoxical Synaptic Plasticity: A Modeling Study

Wulfram Gerstner, Laureline Logiaco

Experiments have shown that the same stimulation pattern that causes Long-Term Potentiation in proximal synapses, will induce Long-Term Depression in distal ones. In order to understand these, and other, surprising observations we use a phenomenological mo ...

FRONTIERS RESEARCH FOUNDATION2020

Mesoscopic population equations for spiking neural networks with synaptic short-term plasticity

Wulfram Gerstner, Tilo Schwalger, Valentin Marc Schmutz

Coarse-graining microscopic models of biological neural networks to obtain mesoscopic models of neural activities is an essential step towards multi-scale models of the brain. Here, we extend a recent theory for mesoscopic population dynamics with static s ...

2020

Data-driven integration of hippocampal CA1 synaptic physiology in silico

Eilif Benjamin Muller, Michael Reimann, Srikanth Ramaswamy, András Ecker, Armando Romani

The anatomy and physiology of monosynaptic connections in rodent hippocampal CA1 have been extensively studied in recent decades. Yet, the resulting knowledge remains disparate and difficult to reconcile. Here, we present a data-driven approach to integrat ...

2020

LTP of inhibition at PV interneuron output synapses requires developmental BMP signaling

Ralf Schneggenburger, Denys Osypenko, Christopher Clark, Evan Dean Vickers

Parvalbumin (PV)-expressing interneurons (PV-INs) mediate well-timed inhibition of cortical principal neurons, and plasticity of these interneurons is involved in map remodeling of primary sensory cortices during critical periods of development. To assess ...

Nature Research2020

Somatostatin enhances visual processing and perception by suppressing excitatory inputs to parvalbumin-positive interneurons in V1

Graham Knott, Carl Petersen, Catherine Maclachlan

Somatostatin (SST) is a neuropeptide expressed in a major subtype of GABAergic interneurons in the cortex. Despite abundant expression of SST and its receptors, their modulatory function in cortical processing remains unclear. Here, we found that SST appli ...

2020

Cellular, Synaptic and Network Effects of Acetylcholine in the Neocortex

Henry Markram, Daniel Keller, Srikanth Ramaswamy, Cristina Colangelo, Polina Shichkova

The neocortex is densely innervated by basal forebrain (BF) cholinergic neurons. Long-range axons of cholinergic neurons regulate higher-order cognitive function and dysfunction in the neocortex by releasing acetylcholine (ACh). ACh release dynamically rec ...

2019

Estimating the Readily-Releasable Vesicle Pool Size at Synaptic Connections in the Neocortex

Henry Markram, Eilif Benjamin Muller, Rodrigo de Campos Perin, Srikanth Ramaswamy, Giuseppe Chindemi, Natali Barros Zulaica

Previous studies based on the 'Quantal Model' for synaptic transmission suggest that neurotransmitter release is mediated by a single release site at individual synaptic contacts in the neocortex. However, recent studies seem to contradict this hypothesis ...

2019

Role of BMP Signaling for the Formation of Auditory Brainstem Nuclei and Large Auditory Relay Synapses

Ralf Schneggenburger, Christopher Clark, Elin Kristina Kronander

Large excitatory synapses are found at specific points in the neuronal circuits of the auditory brainstem, to enable fast information transfer and the preservation of acoustic timing information. The extracellular cues and signaling mechanisms that lead to ...

WILEY2019

Ultrastructural basis of strong unitary inhibition in a binaural neuron

Graham Knott, Ralf Schneggenburger, Enida Gjoni, Clémentine Léa Aguet, Daniela Andrea Sahlender

Binaural neurons in the lateral superior olive (LSO) integrate sound information arriving from each ear, and powerful glycinergic inhibition of these neurons plays an important role in this process. In the present study, we investigated the ultrastructural ...

WILEY2018