TY - JOUR TI - Dendritic small conductance calcium-activated potassium channels activated by action potentials suppress EPSPs and gate spike-timing dependent synaptic plasticity AU - Jones, Scott L AU - To, Minh-Son AU - Stuart, Greg J A2 - Bartos, Marlene VL - 6 PY - 2017 DA - 2017/10/23 SP - e30333 C1 - eLife 2017;6:e30333 DO - 10.7554/eLife.30333 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.30333 AB - Small conductance calcium-activated potassium channels (SK channels) are present in spines and can be activated by backpropagating action potentials (APs). This suggests they may play a critical role in spike-timing dependent synaptic plasticity (STDP). Consistent with this idea, EPSPs in both cortical and hippocampal pyramidal neurons were suppressed by preceding APs in an SK-dependent manner. In cortical pyramidal neurons EPSP suppression by preceding APs depended on their precise timing as well as the distance of activated synapses from the soma, was dendritic in origin, and involved SK-dependent suppression of NMDA receptor activation. As a result SK channel activation by backpropagating APs gated STDP induction during low-frequency AP-EPSP pairing, with both LTP and LTD absent under control conditions but present after SK channel block. These findings indicate that activation of SK channels in spines by backpropagating APs plays a key role in regulating both EPSP amplitude and STDP induction. KW - Action potential KW - EPSP KW - plasticity KW - SK channel KW - NMDA JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -