A unified computational model for cortical post-synaptic plasticity

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Abstract

Signalling pathways leading to post-synaptic plasticity have been examined in many types of experimental studies, but a unified picture on how multiple biochemical pathways collectively shape neocortical plasticity is missing. We built a biochemically detailed model of post-synaptic plasticity describing CaMKII, PKA, and PKC pathways and their contribution to synaptic potentiation or depression. We developed a statistical AMPA-receptor-tetramer model, which permits the estimation of the AMPA-receptor-mediated maximal synaptic conductance based on numbers of GluR1s and GluR2s predicted by the biochemical signalling model. We show that our model reproduces neuromodulator-gated spike-timing-dependent plasticity as observed in the visual cortex and can be fit to data from many cortical areas, uncovering the biochemical contributions of the pathways pinpointed by the underlying experimental studies. Our model explains the dependence of different forms of plasticity on the availability of different proteins and can be used for the study of mental disorder-associated impairments of cortical plasticity.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. Simulation scripts can be found at http://modeldb.yale.edu/260971. Password "synaptic" required during peer-review.

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Tuomo Mäki-Marttunen

Computational Physiology, Simula Research Laboratory, Fornebu, Norway

For correspondence
tuomo@simula.no

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-7082-2507
Nicolangelo Iannella

Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Andrew G Edwards

Computational Physiology, Simula Research Laboratory, Fornebu, Norway

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Gaute T Einevoll

Department of Mathematical Sciences and Technology, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5425-5012
Kim T Blackwell

Bioengineering Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4711-2344

Funding

Research council of Norway (248828)

Tuomo Mäki-Marttunen
Andrew G Edwards
Gaute T Einevoll

European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation (785907)

Gaute T Einevoll

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.