Abstract

Astrocytic Ca2+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 Ca2+rises in the mouse motor cortex. Reducing astrocytic Ca2+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 Ca2+activity. On those dendrites, dendritic spines that were active before dendritic Ca2+activity underwent CaMKII-dependent size reduction. In addition, the activation of adenosine receptors prevented repetitive dendritic Ca2+activity and synaptic depotentiation caused by the reduction of astrocytic Ca2+, suggesting the involvement of ATP released from astrocytes and adenosine signaling in the processes. Together, these findings reveal the function of astrocytic Ca2+in preventing synaptic depotentiation by limiting repetitive dendritic activity during learning.

Title

Astrocytic Ca2+prevents synaptic depotentiation by limiting repetitive activity in dendrites during motor learning

Authors

Baoling Lai, Deliang Yuan, Zhiwei Xu, Feilong Zhang, Ming Li, Alejandro Martín-Ávila, Xufeng Chen, Kai Chen, Kunfu Ouyang, Guang Yang, Moses V Chao, Wen-Biao Gan

Journal Information

Nature Neuroscience (2025)

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