Understanding how activity drives diverse spine structural interactions

Project Narrative Information is believed to be encoded at the cellular level through alterations in synaptic weights, and changes in connections between neurons are correlated with structural modifications of spines, such as growth or elimination. Additional forms of plasticity also impinge on these structures, such as homeostatic modulation of synaptic strength. In this proposal, we will use two-photon imaging and glutamate uncaging to test a variety of plasticity mechanisms at individual spines and between groups of spines, to understand with high precision how information is physically stored in the brain.