Synaptic cooperation and competition in STDP learning rule

Abstract

The correlation-based rule of plasticity has been widely believed to be involved in the organization of functional synaptic circuits. However, recent studies have suggested that the direction of plasticity in the sensory-deprived barrel cortex can be reversed, depending on the stimulus environment, from that predicted by the correlation-based plasticity. To investigate whether spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) may underlie such reversal in cortical plasticity, we study the influence of the correlation time on the synaptic cooperative and competitive mechanisms based on the input correlation. The results show that in the presence of activity-dependent feedback modification of the STDP window function, the increase in the correlation time can reverse the plasticity outcome such that for shorter correlation time, more frequently activated synapses are strengthened while, as the correlation time is sufficiently prolonged, less frequently activated synapses become strengthened. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.