Synapse Remodeling in Health and Disease

Readings

See the Lecture Summaries to read about the discussions that took place around each week’s readings.

Week	Topics	Readings
1	Introduction	[No readings]
2	Synapse Plasticity: Developing Brain	Johnson C.M., Loucks F.A., Peckler H., et al. (2016). Long-range orbitofrontal and amygdala axons show divergent patterns of maturation in the frontal cortex across adolescence. Dev. Cogn. Neurosci., 18: 113–120. Counotte, D.S., Li K.W., Wortel J., et al. (2010). Changes in molecular composition of rat medial prefrontal cortex synapses during adolescent development. Eur. J. Neurosci., 32(9): 1452–60. Week 2 Reading Questions (PDF)
3	Synapse Plasticity: Aging Brain	Mostany R., Anstey J.E., Crump K.L., et al. (2013). Altered synaptic dynamics during normal brain aging. J. Neurosci., 33(9): 4094–4104. Eavri R., Shepherd J., Welsh C.A., et al. (2018). Interneuron Simplification and Loss of Structural Plasticity As Markers of Aging-Related Functional Decline. J. Neurosci., 38(39): 8421–32. Week 3 Reading Questions (PDF)
4	Sensory Experience-Dependent Plasticity—Part 1	van Versendaal D., Rajendran R., Saiepour M.H., et al. (2012). Elimination of inhibitory synapses is a major component of adult ocular dominance plasticity. Neuron, 74(2): 374–83. Tan H.L., Roth R.H., Graves A.R., et al. (2020). Lamina-specific AMPA receptor dynamics following visual deprivation in vivo. eLife 9:e52420. Week 4 Reading Questions (PDF)
5	Sensory Experience-Dependent Plasticity—Part 2	Wilbrecht L., Holtmaat A., Wright N., et al. (2010). Structural plasticity underlies experience-dependent functional plasticity of cortical circuits. J. Neurosci., 30(14): 4927–32. Seaton, G., Hodges, G., de Haan, A., et al. (2020). Dual-Component Structural Plasticity Mediated by αCaMKII Autophosphorylation on Basal Dendrites of Cortical Layer 2/3 Neurons. J. Neurosci., 40(11): 2228–45. Week 5 Reading Questions (PDF)
6	Learning-Induced Synaptic Plasticity	Johnson C.M., Peckler H., Tai L.H., et al. (2016). Rule learning enhances structural plasticity of long-range axons in frontal cortex. Nat. Commun., 7, 10785: 1–14. Roth R.H., Cudmore R.H., Tan H.L., et al. (2020). Cortical Synaptic AMPA Receptor Plasticity during Motor Learning. Neuron, 105(5): 895–908. Week 6 Reading Questions (PDF)
7	Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Autism and Fragile X Syndrome	Arroyo E.D., Fiole D., Mantri S.S., et al. (2019). Dendritic spines in early postnatal Fragile X mice are insensitive to novel sensory experience. J. Neurosci., 39(3): 412–19. Krueger D.D., Osterweil E.K., Chen S.P., et al. (2011). Cognitive dysfunction and prefrontal synaptic abnormalities in a mouse model of fragile X syndrome. PNAS, 108(6): 2587–92. Week 7 Reading Questions (PDF)
8	Workshop Mock Grant Proposals Rough draft of mock grant proposal due	[No Readings]
9	Neurodegeneration: Alzheimer’s Disease Final draft of mock grant proposal due	Lesne S., Koh M., Kotilinek L., et al. (2006). A specific amyloid-β protein assembly in the brain impairs memory. Nature, 440: 352–57. Wu H.Y., Hudry E., Hashimoto T., et al. (2010). Amyloid beta induces the morphological neurodegenerative triad of spine loss, dendritic simplification, and neuritic dystrophies through calcineurin activation. J. Neurosci., 30(7): 2636–49. Week 9 Reading Questions (PDF)
10	Injury: Peripheral Nerve Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury	Sen T., Gupta R., Kaiser H., et al. (2017). Activation of PERK elicits memory impairment through inactivation of CREB and downregulation of PSD95 after traumatic brain injury. J. Neurosci., 37(24): 5900–5911. Ko H., Choi J.H., Park D.I., et al. (2018). Rapid turnover of cortical NCAM1 regulates synaptic reorganization after peripheral nerve injury. Cell Reports, 22: 748–59. Week 10 Reading Questions (PDF)
11	Field Trip to Vertex Pharmaceuticals	[No Readings]
12	Fear and Trauma Deadline to choose paper for final presentation	Lai C.S.W., Adler A., Gan W.B. (2018). Fear extinction reverses dendritic spine formation induced by fear conditioning in the mouse auditory cortex. PNAS, 115(37): 9306–11. Colyn L., Venzala E., Marco S., et al. (2019). Chronic social defeat stress induces sustained synaptic structural changes in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala. Behavioral Brain Research, 373, 112079: 1–7. Week 12 Reading Questions (PDF)
13	Nedivi Lab Visit: Technique Demonstrations	Optional Reading Villa K.L., Berry K.P., Subramanian J., et al. (2016). Inhibitory synapses are repeatedly assembled and removed at persistent sites in vivo. Neuron, 89(4): 756–69.
14	Final Oral Presentations and Wrap-up Discussion	[No Readings]