Topic: familiarity modulated synapses

Since environments are constantly in flux, the brain’s ability to identify novel stimuli that fall outside its own internal representation of the world is crucial for an organism’s survival. Within the mammalian neocortex, inhibitory microcircuits are proposed to regulate activity in an experience-dependent manner and different inhibitory subtypes exhibit distinct novelty responses. Discerning the function of diverse neural circuits and their modulation by experience can be daunting unless one has a biologically plausible novelty mechanism that is both understandable and flexible. Here we intr