Synaptic heterogeneity in the brain at single synapse resolution

Connectomics: a need for comparative studies

e-Neuroforum ◽

10.1515/s13295-016-0025-3 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Gilles Laurent ◽

G. Laurent

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

Comparative Studies ◽

Brain Area ◽

Theoretical Understanding ◽

High Resolution Data ◽

The Brain ◽

Resolution Data ◽

Single Synapse

AbstractConnectomics, the study of circuit architecture, has the potential to reveal the connectivity of any brain or brain area with single-synapse resolution. This is extremely exciting but at the same time quite daunting. The exciting part is obvious. The daunting part is less so, and relates to the challenge of extracting principles from overwhelming masses of high-resolution data. You might say that it is a nice problem to have, and I will agree. What I will argue here is that, if our goal is to derive from such data a general and theoretical understanding of the brain, wemust nowmore than ever take advantage of comparative approaches.

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A brain-wide atlas of synapses across the mouse lifespan

Science ◽

10.1126/science.aba3163 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. eaba3163 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Mélissa Cizeron ◽

Zhen Qiu ◽

Babis Koniaris ◽

Ragini Gokhale ◽

Noboru H. Komiyama ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Old Age ◽

Early Adulthood ◽

Morphological Diversity ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Intellectual Ability ◽

Excitatory Synapses ◽

Learned Behavior ◽

Compositional Changes ◽

The Brain ◽

Single Synapse

Synapses connect neurons together to form the circuits of the brain and their molecular composition controls innate and learned behavior. We have analyzed the molecular and morphological diversity of five billion excitatory synapses at single-synapse resolution across the mouse brain from birth to old age. A continuum of changes alters synapse composition in all brain regions across the lifespan. Expansion in synapse diversity produces differentiation of brain regions until early adulthood and compositional changes cause dedifferentiation in old age. The spatiotemporal synaptome architecture of the brain potentially accounts for lifespan transitions in intellectual ability, memory, and susceptibility to behavioral disorders.

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