Journal article
Erasing synapses in sleep: is it time to be SHY?
Neural plasticity, Vol.2012, pp.264378-15
2012
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/104134
PMCID: PMC3317003
PMID: 22530156
Abstract
Converging lines of evidence strongly support a role for sleep in brain plasticity. An elegant idea that may explain how sleep accomplishes this role is the "synaptic homeostasis hypothesis (SHY)." According to SHY, sleep promotes net synaptic weakening which offsets net synaptic strengthening that occurs during wakefulness. SHY is intuitively appealing because it relates the homeostatic regulation of sleep to an important function (synaptic plasticity). SHY has also received important experimental support from recent studies in Drosophila melanogaster. There remain, however, a number of unanswered questions about SHY. What is the cellular mechanism governing SHY? How does it fit with what we know about plasticity mechanisms in the brain? In this review, I discuss the evidence and theory of SHY in the context of what is known about Hebbian and non-Hebbian synaptic plasticity. I conclude that while SHY remains an elegant idea, the underlying mechanisms are mysterious and its functional significance unknown.
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Details
- Title
- Erasing synapses in sleep: is it time to be SHY?
- Creators
- Marcos Gabriel Frank - Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6074, USA. mgf@mail.med.upenn.edu
- Publication Details
- Neural plasticity, Vol.2012, pp.264378-15
- Academic Unit
- Biomedical Sciences, Department of
- Publisher
- United States
- Grant note
- R01 EY019022 / NEI NIH HHS R01 HL114161 / NHLBI NIH HHS EY019022 / NEI NIH HHS
- Identifiers
- 99900546748101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article