Overview
- Researchers mapped CA3 neurons in mice across early postnatal, juvenile, and adult stages and saw dense, local wiring give way to sparse, distributed, and structured networks.
- The team used multicellular patch-clamp circuit mapping with advanced microscopy and laser activation to measure and trigger single connections with high precision.
- Synapses matured from being strong enough for one input to fire a neuron to needing several inputs to add up, which points to higher selectivity in adults.
- The authors say the pattern fits a pruning model and propose that experience-driven activity likely shapes which connections stay and which are removed.
- The work, led from ISTA and published in Nature Communications (Vargas-Barroso et al., 2026; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-71914-x), focuses on mice and centers on CA3, a key autoassociative memory hub.