Excitation and inhibition remain balanced, even when the brain undergoes reorganization
Every second, the brain's nerve cells exchange many billions of synaptic impulses. Two kinds of synapses ensure that this flow of data is regulated: Excitatory synapses relay information from one cell to the next, while inhibitory synapses restrict the flow of information. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried could now show, in cooperation with colleagues from the Ruhr University of Bochum, that excitatory and inhibitory synapses remain balanced even if the brain undergoes reorganization. Following a small retinal lesion, the nerve cells in the mouse brain responsible for this particular region no longer received (excitatory) information. As a result, the cells reduced the number of their inhibitory synapses by 30% in the space of just one day. This down-regulated balance between excitation and inhibition could indicate to the nerve cells that it is time for them to reconfigure to partially compensate for the loss of...
