Determinants of brain readiness for action: Experience shapes more than neuronal form

Brain information storage involves altered neural organization: a coordinated set of changes occurs in neurons and their synapses, astrocyes, vasculature and probably other components of the nervous system. Although coordinated, these changes appear to be independently regulated and to follow-different time courses across the lifespan. Mechanisms of coordinated regulation remain to be determined, but changes in the expression of immediate early genes in learning paradigms suggest one possible pathway. Synaptic activation of local protein synthesis within the dendrite similarly suggests mechanisms whereby whole cell metabolic responses could be targeted to specific locations in the neuronal network. Developmental and postdevelopmental expression of cell adhesion molecules and cell structural components suggests mechanisms through which altered neural organization may ultimately be achieved.