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On this day, 10 years ago, 2 Letters were published in Nature which started the field of axon initial plasticity.
Happy research anniversary: @GrubbLab & @jbneuro, Hiroshi Kuba, Y. Oichi & H. Ohmori!
A mini thread about why these papers are celebration-worthy:
1/11
Happy research anniversary: @GrubbLab & @jbneuro, Hiroshi Kuba, Y. Oichi & H. Ohmori!
A mini thread about why these papers are celebration-worthy:
1/11
The paper by @GrubbLab & @jbneuro showed that when you increase network activity in vitro with either +KCl or opsin stimulation, the AIS responds by shifting more distally along the axon AND this makes neurons less excitable: https://go.nature.com/2VdpPQN
2/11
2/11
Hiroshi Kuba et al’s used an in vivo 
model of auditory deprivation, and found that sound processing neurons in the brainstem increased their AIS lengths, AND were overall more excitable: https://go.nature.com/2Z2PSLB
3/11
model of auditory deprivation, and found that sound processing neurons in the brainstem increased their AIS lengths, AND were overall more excitable: https://go.nature.com/2Z2PSLB 3/11
Reading them again recently for a grant application, I noticed the anniversary date + realised that if they would have been published in isolation of each other they wouldn’t have made such a big splash.
Why?
4/11
Why?
4/11
Well… one could have been tut-tutted as an ‘in vitro’ artefact 
, while the other might be downplayed as a special sensory system only adaptation 
.
5/11
, while the other might be downplayed as a special sensory system only adaptation .5/11
But c’mon, finding the same adaptation in two different animal models, using two different network activity stimulations, and seeing two complementary effects = IT MUST BE A UNIVERSAL PLASTICITY ADAPTATION FOR NEURONS.
6/11
6/11
A lot of cool research happened since. A twitter thread can’t do it justice, so here is a trio of new juicy AIS tidbits:
7/11
7/11
We knew that calcium signalling is über important for AIS plasticity. It turns out that those sneaky ions can also hijack sodium channels, of which there are loads at the AIS: https://bit.ly/37THBxw by @naomihanemaayer et al
8/11
8/11
Recent modelling work shows that AIS plasticity could actually be important for a lot more than setting excitability thresholds: https://bit.ly/2NrTelS by Sarah Goethals & @RomainBrette
9/11
9/11
Finishing with some new ‘classical’ AIS plasticity research. @NoraJamann et al show bidirectional AIS plasticity in the same network in an in vivo 
model:
https://bit.ly/3hSSJPT
10/11
model:https://bit.ly/3hSSJPT
10/11
If anyone wants to make any predictions of what’s major to come in the next decade, I’ll buy you some 
@SfN 2030 regardless of whether you were right or wrong!
11/11
@SfN 2030 regardless of whether you were right or wrong!11/11
