Developmental plasticity | EPFL Graph Search

Developmental plasticity is a general term referring to changes in neural connections during development as a result of environmental interactions as well as neural changes induced by learning. Much like neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, developmental plasticity is specific to the change in neurons and synaptic connections as a consequence of developmental processes. A child creates most of these connections from birth to early childhood. There are three primary methods by which this may occur as the brain develops, but critical periods determine when lasting changes may form. Developmental plasticity may also be used in place of the term phenotypic plasticity when an organism in an embryonic or larval stage can alter its phenotype based on environmental factors. However, a main difference between the two is that phenotypic plasticity experienced during adulthood can be reversible, whereas traits that are considered developmentally plastic set foundations during early development that remain throughout the life of the organism. During development, the central nervous system acquires information via endogenous or exogenous factors as well as learning experiences. In acquiring and storing such information, the plastic nature of the central nervous system allows for the adaptation of existing neural connections in order to accommodate new information and experiences, resulting in developmental plasticity. This form of plasticity that occurs during development is the result of three predominant mechanisms: synaptic and homeostatic plasticity, and learning. The underlying principle of synaptic plasticity is that synapses undergo an activity-dependent and selective strengthening or weakening so that new information can be stored. Synaptic plasticity depends on numerous factors including the threshold of the presynaptic stimulus in addition to the relative concentrations of neurotransmitter molecules. Synaptic plasticity has long been implicated for its role in memory storage and is thought to play a key role in learning.

A tool for mapping microglial morphology, morphOMICs, reveals brain-region and sex-dependent phenotypes

Kathryn Hess Bellwald, Lida Kanari, Martina Scolamiero

Environmental cues influence the highly dynamic morphology of microglia. Strategies to characterize these changes usually involve user-selected morphometric features, which preclude the identification of a spectrum of context-dependent morphological phenot ...

NATURE PORTFOLIO2022

Cbp-dependent histone acetylation mediates axon regeneration induced by environmental enrichment in rodent spinal cord injury models

Grégoire Courtine, Quentin Barraud, Claudia Kathe, Thomas Haynes Hutson, Kay Alexander Bartholdi

After a spinal cord injury, axons fail to regenerate in the adult mammalian central nervous system, leading to permanent deficits in sensory and motor functions. Increasing neuronal activity after an injury using electrical stimulation or rehabilitation ca ...

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE2019

Plastic and genetic responses of a common sedge to warming have contrasting effects on carbon cycle processes

Luca Bragazza, Constant Signarbieux, Richard David Bardgett, Thomas William Nicholas Walker

Climate warming affects plant physiology through genetic adaptation and phenotypic plasticity, but little is known about how these mechanisms influence ecosystem processes. We used three elevation gradients and a reciprocal transplant experiment to show th ...

2019