Inactivity and Ca(2+) signaling regulate synaptic compensation in motoneurons following hibernation in American bullfrogs

Neural networks tune synaptic and cellular properties to produce stable activity. One form of homeostatic regulation involves scaling the strength of synapses up or down in a global and multiplicative manner to oppose activity disturbances. In American bullfrogs, excitatory synapses scale up to regulate breathing motor function after inactivity in hibernation, connecting homeostatic compensation to motor behavior. In traditional models of homeostatic synaptic plasticity, inactivity is thought to increase synaptic strength via mechanisms that involve reduced Ca(2+) influx through voltage-gated channels. Therefore, we tested whether pharmacological inactivity and inhibition of voltage-gated Ca(2+) channels are sufficient to drive synaptic compensation in this system. For this, we chronically exposed ex vivo brainstem preparations containing the intact respiratory network to tetrodotoxin (TTX) to stop activity and nimodipine to block L-type Ca(2+) channels. We show that hibernation and TTX similarly increased motoneuron synaptic strength and that hibernation occluded the response to TTX. In contrast, inhibiting L-type Ca(2+) channels did not upregulate synaptic strength but disrupted the apparent multiplicative scaling of synaptic compensation typically observed in response to hibernation. Thus, inactivity drives up synaptic strength through mechanisms that do not rely on reduced L-type channel function, while Ca(2+) signaling associated with the hibernation environment independently regulates the balance of synaptic weights. Altogether, these results point to multiple feedback signals for shaping synaptic compensation that gives rise to proper network function during environmental challenges in vivo.