TY - JOUR T1 - Receptive field formation by interacting excitatory and inhibitory synaptic plasticity JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/066589 SP - 066589 AU - Claudia Clopath AU - Tim P. Vogels AU - Robert C. Froemke AU - Henning Sprekeler Y1 - 2016/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/07/29/066589.abstract N2 - The stimulus selectivity of synaptic currents in cortical neurons often shows a co-tuning of excitation and inhibition, but the mechanisms that underlie the emergence and plasticity of this co-tuning are not fully understood. Using a computational model, we show that an interaction of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic plasticity reproduces both the developmental and – when combined with a disinhibitory gate – the adult plasticity of excitatory and inhibitory receptive fields in auditory cortex. The co-tuning arises from inhibitory plasticity that balances excitation and inhibition, while excitatory stimulus selectivity can result from two different mechanisms. Inhibitory inputs with a broad stimulus tuning introduce a sliding threshold as in Bienenstock-Cooper-Munro rules, introducing an excitatory stimulus selectivity at the cost of a broader inhibitory receptive field. Alternatively, input asymmetries can be amplified by synaptic competition. The latter leaves any receptive field plasticity transient, a prediction we verify in recordings in auditory cortex. ER -