Early dating influences long-term synaptic partnerships.

摘要

The formation of neural circuits is the end result of numerous but exquisitely timed and carefully orchestrated cellular and molecular events. Neurons project their axons, sometimes from relatively far distances, to specific regions of the brain where they encounter a number of potential postsynaptic partners and remarkably form stable connections with only a select few. How such cellular specificity occurs has fascinated and puzzled neuroscientists for over a century. Although several mechanisms derived from a wide variety of species and models have been implicated (Sanes & Yamagata, 2009), the concomitant maturational processes that occur in the presynaptic terminals and postsynaptic neuron just prior to their synapse formation and up to functional maturity remain unclear.