Neuronal Firing Rate Homeostasis Is Inhibited by Sleep and Promoted by Wake

• Published in: Cell 2016-03, Vol.165 (1), p.180-191
• Main Authors: Hengen, Keith B., Torrado Pacheco, Alejandro, McGregor, James N., Van Hooser, Stephen D., Turrigiano, Gina G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Homeostasis; Memory Consolidation; Neural Pathways; Neuronal Plasticity; Neurons - physiology; Rats; Rats, Long-Evans; Sleep; Visual Cortex - cytology; Visual Cortex - physiology; Wakefulness
• ISSN: 0092-8674; 1097-4172
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.01.046

Homeostatic mechanisms stabilize neural circuit function by keeping firing rates within a set-point range, but whether this process is gated by brain state is unknown. Here, we monitored firing rate homeostasis in individual visual cortical neurons in freely behaving rats as they cycled between sleep and wake states. When neuronal firing rates were perturbed by visual deprivation, they gradually returned to a precise, cell-autonomous set point during periods of active wake, with lengthening of the wake period enhancing firing rate rebound. Unexpectedly, this resetting of neuronal firing was suppressed during sleep. This raises the possibility that memory consolidation or other sleep-dependent processes are vulnerable to interference from homeostatic plasticity mechanisms. [Display omitted] [Display omitted] •Individual neocortical neurons were followed continuously during visual deprivation•Control neurons have stable mean firing rates across behavioral states•Perturbation by visual deprivation reveals a cell-autonomous firing rate set point•Homeostatic recovery of firing is enabled by wake and inhibited by sleep states Neural circuits are stabilized by returning firing rates to a set point that is specific to individual neurons, but this process is suppressed by sleep, raising the possibility that decreased homeostatic plasticity during sleep may promote functions like learning and memory.