g., 4 days) produced spines in which the SEP-GluR1 spine enrichment was correlated with spine size (see Figures S1A–S1D available online). Similar to SEP-GluR1, following 2 days of 4-OHT-driven more expression, there was a strong relation between selleck SEP-GluR2 immobile fractions and SEP-GluR2 spine enrichment (r = 0.66, p < 0.003, n = 19 spines; Figure 2D), but not with spine size (r = 0.14, p = 0.56,

n = 19 spines; Figure 2E). These results indicate that experience- or deprivation-driven synaptic plasticity can be detected using fluorescently tagged AMPA receptors. To test further the view that spine enrichment of SEP-tagged AMPA receptors serves as an indication of their synaptic incorporation, we performed glutamate uncaging onto spines Epacadostat mw that had various levels of SEP-GluR1 enrichment. We obtained whole-cell recordings from neurons expressing recombinant receptors and measured AMPA receptor-mediated responses from focally applied glutamate on spines (Figure 2F; see Experimental Procedures). We recorded responses at positive (VH = +40mV) and negative (VH = −60mV) holding potentials; their ratio (current at VH = +40 mV/current at

VH = −60 mV) is the rectification index. Because recombinant receptors form homomeric receptors, they display little outward current at positive potentials and, thus, a low rectification index. We found a correlation between rectification indices and enrichment values for different spines (r = −0.59, p < 0.03, n = 14 spines; Figure 2G), consistent with the view that enrichment value is a good measure for synaptic incorporation of recombinant SEP-tagged AMPA receptors. To examine if nearby spines on individual dendrites displayed similar levels of plasticity, Florfenicol we calculated the correlation coefficient of SEP-GluR1 spine enrichment for neighboring spines (see Experimental Procedures; Figure 3A) following 2 day transient

expression. Neighboring spines showed a significant positive correlation value (0.14 ± 0.03, p < 10−5, n = 95 dendrites) in dendrites from animals with whiskers intact (Figures 3B–3D and S2A). This correlation value between neighboring spines was significantly greater than that observed in whisker-trimmed animals (0.003 ± 0.03, p < 0.009 with Bonferroni correction, n = 68 dendrites; Figures 3D and S2A). These results indicate that sensory experience drives coordinated potentiation onto nearby synapses. It is possible that some of the dendritic segments examined received little plasticity during the period of SEP-GluR1 expression (see below). Thus, we wished to determine what fraction of dendritic segments showed a significant correlation in the enrichment values of neighboring spines. For each dendritic segment we calculated the correlation coefficient of neighboring enrichment values and compared this to a value obtained by random shuffling of the enrichment values for that dendritic segment.