| First Author | Lai B | Year | 2025 |
| Journal | Nat Neurosci | Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 11 | Pages | 2296-2309 |
| PubMed ID | 41083843 | Mgi Jnum | J:377057 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:8273806 | Doi | 10.1038/s41593-025-02072-4 |
| Citation | Lai B, et al. (2025) Astrocytic Ca(2+) prevents synaptic depotentiation by limiting repetitive activity in dendrites during motor learning. Nat Neurosci 28(11):2296-2309 |
| abstractText | Astrocytic Ca(2+) activity regulates activity-dependent synaptic plasticity, but its role in learning-related synaptic changes in the living brain remains unclear. We found that motor training induced synaptic potentiation on apical dendrites of layer 5 pyramidal neurons, as well as astrocytic Ca(2+) rises in the mouse motor cortex. Reducing astrocytic Ca(2+) led to synaptic depotentiation during motor training and subsequent impairment in performance improvement. Notably, synaptic depotentiation occurred on a fraction of dendrites with repetitive dendritic Ca(2+) activity. On those dendrites, dendritic spines that were active before dendritic Ca(2+) activity underwent CaMKII-dependent size reduction. In addition, the activation of adenosine receptors prevented repetitive dendritic Ca(2+) activity and synaptic depotentiation caused by the reduction of astrocytic Ca(2+), suggesting the involvement of ATP released from astrocytes and adenosine signaling in the processes. Together, these findings reveal the function of astrocytic Ca(2+) in preventing synaptic depotentiation by limiting repetitive dendritic activity during learning. |