Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34545240›Full record

ReviewNature reviews. Neuroscience2021

Mechanisms governing activity-dependent synaptic pruning in the developing mammalian CNS.

Travis E Faust, Georgia Gunner, Dorothy P Schafer

Open access · bronzeAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 256 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
256citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
27.1field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

256 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 397 citations in OpenAlex.

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  4. Early psychosocial deprivation alters the refinement of neural dynamics across adolescence.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
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196 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Travis E FaustDepartment of Neurobiology, Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
Georgia GunnerDepartment of Neurobiology, Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
Dorothy P SchaferDepartment of Neurobiology, Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA. dorothy.schafer@umassmed.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2201-6276
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School · US

Funding

Microglia-dependent mechanisms governing neural circuit plasticityR01MH113743 · NIMH · UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MED SCH WORCESTER · PI Dorothy Patricia Schafer · 2017 to 2026
$4.9M
Innate Immunity Training ProgramT32AI095213 · NIAID · UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MED SCH WORCESTER · PI SILVERMAN, NEAL · 2011 to 2025
$2.5M
How Do Synaptic Connections Change in Demyelinating Disease?R01NS117533 · NINDS · UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MED SCH WORCESTER · PI SCHAFER, DOROTHY PATRICIA · 2021 to 2025
$2.2M
Dissecting ADAM10 function in microglia-mediated synapse eliminationF31NS117053 · NINDS · UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MED SCH WORCESTER · PI GUNNER, GEORGIA · 2020 to 2021
$49k
NIAID NIH HHS T32 AI095213NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH113743NINDS NIH HHS F31 NS117053NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS117533
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Almost 60 years have passed since the initial discovery by Hubel and Wiesel that changes in neuronal activity can elicit developmental rewiring of the central nervous system (CNS). Over this period, we have gained a more comprehensive picture of how both spontaneous neural activity and sensory experience-induced changes in neuronal activity guide CNS circuit development. Here we review activity-dependent synaptic pruning in the mammalian CNS, which we define as the removal of a subset of synapses, while others are maintained, in response to changes in neural activity in the developing nervous system. We discuss the mounting evidence that immune and cell-death molecules are important mechanistic links by which changes in neural activity guide the pruning of specific synapses, emphasizing the role of glial cells in this process. Finally, we discuss how these developmental pruning programmes may go awry in neurodevelopmental disorders of the human CNS, focusing on autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. Together, our aim is to give an overview of how the field of activity-dependent pruning research has evolved, led to exciting new questions and guided the identification of new, therapeutically relevant mechanisms that result in aberrant circuit development in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Indexed as

Age FactorsAnimalsAutism Spectrum DisorderCentral Nervous SystemHumansImmunity, CellularNeurodevelopmental DisordersNeuronal PlasticitySchizophrenia

Identifiers

PMID34545240
PMCPMC8541743
OpenAlexW3199494145

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.