Hibernating Neuronal Structures

Each winter, some animals deal with the cold and with limited food supplies by hibernating. This week, von der Ohe et al. look at the remarkable brain plasticity that accompanies this annual ritual in goldenmantled ground squirrels. Hibernating animals go through bouts of torpor, lasting up to 2 weeks, during which body temperature can drop to near freezing and neuronal activity almost stops. Using iontophoretic injections of dye into fixed tissue sections, the authors examined the structure of neurons in the cerebral cortex, hypothalamus, and thalamus of hibernating squirrels at several stages of torpor and at different temperatures. Cell bodies, dendrites, and spines retracted when the animals entered into torpor. Although the extent of retraction depended on the minimum body temperature reached during torpor, the neuronal structures always recovered to their original conformation within just 2 h of returning to normal body temperatures. Whether they remember where they buried their acorns remains to be tested.

Christina von der Ohe, Corinna Darian-Smith, Craig C. Garner, and H. Craig Heller

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Hibernating Neuronal Structures