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Time to Be SHY? Some Comments on Sleep and Synaptic Homeostasis

Sleep must serve an essential, universal function, one that offsets the risk of being disconnected from the environment. The synaptic homeostasis hypothesis (SHY) is an attempt to identify this essential function. Its core claim is that sleep is needed to reestablish synaptic homeostasis, which is c...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tononi, Giulio, Cirelli, Chiara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3350977/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22619736
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/415250
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author Tononi, Giulio
Cirelli, Chiara
author_facet Tononi, Giulio
Cirelli, Chiara
author_sort Tononi, Giulio
collection PubMed
description Sleep must serve an essential, universal function, one that offsets the risk of being disconnected from the environment. The synaptic homeostasis hypothesis (SHY) is an attempt to identify this essential function. Its core claim is that sleep is needed to reestablish synaptic homeostasis, which is challenged by the remarkable plasticity of the brain. In other words, sleep is “the price we pay for plasticity.” In this issue, M. G. Frank reviewed several aspects of the hypothesis and raised several issues. The comments below provide a brief summary of the motivations underlying SHY and clarify that SHY is a hypothesis not about specific mechanisms, but about a universal, essential function of sleep. This function is the preservation of synaptic homeostasis in the face of a systematic bias toward a net increase in synaptic strength—a challenge that is posed by learning during adult wake, and by massive synaptogenesis during development.
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spelling pubmed-33509772012-05-22 Time to Be SHY? Some Comments on Sleep and Synaptic Homeostasis Tononi, Giulio Cirelli, Chiara Neural Plast Review Article Sleep must serve an essential, universal function, one that offsets the risk of being disconnected from the environment. The synaptic homeostasis hypothesis (SHY) is an attempt to identify this essential function. Its core claim is that sleep is needed to reestablish synaptic homeostasis, which is challenged by the remarkable plasticity of the brain. In other words, sleep is “the price we pay for plasticity.” In this issue, M. G. Frank reviewed several aspects of the hypothesis and raised several issues. The comments below provide a brief summary of the motivations underlying SHY and clarify that SHY is a hypothesis not about specific mechanisms, but about a universal, essential function of sleep. This function is the preservation of synaptic homeostasis in the face of a systematic bias toward a net increase in synaptic strength—a challenge that is posed by learning during adult wake, and by massive synaptogenesis during development. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2012 2012-04-29 /pmc/articles/PMC3350977/ /pubmed/22619736 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/415250 Text en Copyright © 2012 G. Tononi and C. Cirelli. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Article
Tononi, Giulio
Cirelli, Chiara
Time to Be SHY? Some Comments on Sleep and Synaptic Homeostasis
title Time to Be SHY? Some Comments on Sleep and Synaptic Homeostasis
title_full Time to Be SHY? Some Comments on Sleep and Synaptic Homeostasis
title_fullStr Time to Be SHY? Some Comments on Sleep and Synaptic Homeostasis
title_full_unstemmed Time to Be SHY? Some Comments on Sleep and Synaptic Homeostasis
title_short Time to Be SHY? Some Comments on Sleep and Synaptic Homeostasis
title_sort time to be shy? some comments on sleep and synaptic homeostasis
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3350977/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22619736
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/415250
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