Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) are two major forms of synaptic plasticity that are widely considered as important cellular models of learning and memory. Metaplasticity is defined as the plasticity of synaptic plasticity and thus is an advanced form of plasticity. The history of synaptic activity can affect the subsequent synaptic plasticity induction. Therefore, it is important to study metaplasticity to explore new mechanisms underlying various brain functions including learning and memory. Since the concept of metaplasticity was proposed, it has aroused widespread concerns and attracted numerous researchers to dig more details on this topic. These new-found experimental phenomena and cellular mechanisms have established the basis of theoretical studies on metaplasticity. In recent years, researchers have found that metaplasticity can not only affect the synaptic plasticity, but also regulate the neural network to encode specific content and enhance the learning and memory. These findings have greatly enriched our knowledge on plasticity and opened a new route to study the mechanism of learning and memory. In this review, we discuss the recent progress on metaplasticity on following three aspects: (1) the molecular mechanisms of metaplasticity; (2) the role of metaplasticity in learning and memory; and (3) the outlook of future study on metaplasticity.
Learning ; Memory ; Neuronal Plasticity

Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are pervasive, severe, and largely independent of the positive and negative symptoms of the illness. These deficits are increasingly considered to be core features of schizophrenia with evidence that the extent of cognitive impairment is the most salient predictor of daily functioning. Unfortunately, current schizophrenia treatment has been limited in addressing the cognitive deficits of the illness. Alterations in neuroplasticity are hypothesized to underpin these cognitive deficits, though preserved neuroplasticity may offer an avenue towards cognitive remediation. Key neuroplastic principles to consider in designing remediation interventions include ensuring sufficient intensity and duration of remediation programs, "bottom-up" training that proceeds from simple to complex cognitive processes, and individual tailoring of remediation regimens. We discuss several cognitive remediation programs, including cognitive enhancement therapy, which embrace these principles to target neurocognitive and social cognitive improvements and which havebeen demonstrated to be effective in schizophrenia. Future directions in cognitive remediation research include potential synergy with pharmacologic treatment, non-invasive stimulation techniques, and psychosocial interventions, identification of patient characteristics that predict outcome with cognitive remediation, and increasing the access to these interventions in front-line settings.
Humans ; Neuronal Plasticity ; Schizophrenia

Time is an important element for cognitive processes. Timing and time perception have been investigated by neuroscientists and psychologists for many years. It is well accepted that emotions could alter our experience of time. Previous studies of the emotional modulation on temporal perception focus primarily on behavioral and psychological experiments. In recent years, studies about the neurophysiological mechanisms of time perception have made some progress. Therefore, researchers started to explore how emotions influence our sense of time on the aspects of neural networks, neurotransmitters and synaptic plasticity. In this paper, we tried to review current studies about the effects of emotional regulation on time perception and the relevant neurophysiological mechanisms. This review will help us to deeply understand the neural mechanisms of time perception.
Emotions ; Neuronal Plasticity ; Time Perception

No abstract available.
Comorbidity* ; Depression* ; Irritable Bowel Syndrome* ; Neuronal Plasticity*

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an upcoming treatment modality for patients with schizophrenia. A series of recent observations have demonstrated improvement in clinical status of schizophrenia patients with tDCS. This review summarizes the research work that has examined the effects of tDCS in schizophrenia patients with respect to symptom amelioration, cognitive enhancement and neuroplasticity evaluation. tDCS is emerging as a safe, rapid and effective treatment for various aspects of schizophrenia symptoms ranging from auditory hallucinations-for which the effect is most marked, to negative symptoms and cognitive symptoms as well. An interesting line of investigation involves using tDCS for altering and examining neuroplasticity in patients and healthy subjects and is likely to lead to new insights into the neurological aberrations and pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The mechanistic aspects of the technique are discussed in brief. Future work should focus on establishing the clinical efficacy of this novel technique and on evaluating this modality as an adjunct to cognitive enhancement protocols. Understanding the mechanism of action of tDCS as well as the determinants and neurobiological correlates of clinical response to tDCS remains an important goal, which will help us expand the clinical applications of tDCS for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia.
Hallucinations ; Humans ; Neurobehavioral Manifestations ; Neuronal Plasticity ; Schizophrenia*

For expressing the condolences on the passing away of Dr. Hsiang-Tung Chang, one of the distinguished members of the Chinese Academia of Sciences, the pioneer studies on cortical dendritic potentials that Dr. Chang carried out in the 1950s and the prosperous progresses since then, especially, concerning the modifications of synaptic plasticity by the dendritic back-propagating action potentials were briefly reviewed.
Action Potentials ; Dendrites ; physiology ; Humans ; Neuronal Plasticity

Female ; Humans ; Male ; Neuronal Plasticity ; Synapses ; Vasopressins

The olfactory system is valuable in the study of some general properties of neural system and it provides as an excellent model for studying the effects of environmental toxicants on the sensory system. For example, the olfactory receptor neuron has become an important neurobiologic model system in the area of molecular and cell biology for the study of neuronal plasticity and neuronal development, including the developmental steps of cell birth and lineage, differentiation, synaptogenesis, migration, maturation, and death. The olfactory neuroepithelium is characteristic of neuron replacement and regeneration throughout life. Olfactory receptor neurons are rapidly replaced following traumatic lesions and they are the only known projection neurons with this property. Various toxicants put the olfactory system at risk for damage. Toxic agents comprise part of health hazard to human olfaction. However, the direct and indirect effects of these agents on the olfactory system are not completely understood.
Humans ; Neuronal Plasticity ; Neurons ; Olfactory Receptor Neurons ; Parturition ; Regeneration ; Smell

OBJECTIVE: S100B is a neurotrophic factor that is involved in neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is disrupted in depression; however, treatment with antidepressants can restore neuroplasticity. S100B has previously been used as a biological marker for neuropathology and neuroplasticity; therefore, in this study, we compared serum S100B levels in depressive patients to those of normal controls. In addition, we compared the serum S100B levels of antidepressant responders to those of nonresponders. METHODS: Thirty five normal controls and 59 depressive patients were enrolled in this study. Depressive patients entered a 6 week clinical trial that included treatment with antidepressants. The serum S100B levels and clinical assessments, which included Hamilton depression rating scores, were measured at baseline and after 6 weeks of treatment with antidepressants. The difference in the serum S100B levels between depressive patients and normal controls and between antidepressant responders and nonresponders was then compared. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the serum S100B levels of normal controls and depressive patients. In addition, 30 of the depressive patients responded to antidepressant treatment while 29 did not. Finally, the responders had significantly higher baseline serum S100B levels than the nonresponders. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that the baseline serum S100B level is associated with the subsequent response to antidepressants. In addition, the high baseline serum S100B level that was observed in depressive patients may enhance neuroplasticity, which results in a favorable therapeutic response to antidepressants.
Antidepressive Agents ; Biomarkers ; Depression ; Depressive Disorder, Major* ; Humans ; Neuronal Plasticity

The concept of metaplasticity entails a change in the physiological or biochemical state of synapses that alters their ability to generate synaptic plasticity by integrating individual synaptic events. The characteristics of metaplasticity would be the fact that those synaptic changes last in certain period time with association of activity in time, homosynaptically or heterosynaptically. Recently introduced non-invasive brain stimulation enables us to observe the metaplastic changes in vivo, which would give us a insight in developing new effective therapeutic approach based on synaptic plasticity and metaplasticity.
Brain ; Neuronal Plasticity ; Plastics ; Synapses ; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation