Perspective Article
E-I balance and human diseases – from molecules to networking
RNA Editing and Hyperexcitability Disorders Helmholtz Group , Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Germany
Information transfer in the brain requires a homeostatic control of neuronal excitability. Therefore, a functional balance between excitatory and inhibitory systems is established during development. This review contains recent information about the molecular mechanisms orchestrating the establishment and maintenance of this excitation-inhibition (E-I) balance, and it reviews examples of deregulation of inhibitory and excitatory systems at a molecular, network and disease level of investigation.
Keywords: inhibition, excitation, E-I balance, autism, mental retardation, epilepsy, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease
Copyright: © 2008 Eichler and Meier. This is an open-access article subject to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and the Frontiers Research Foundation, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
*Correspondence: Jochen C. Meier, Neuroscience Department, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Robert-Rössle-Strasse 10, 13092 Berlin, Germany. e-mail: jochen.meier@mdc-berlin.de
Citation: Eichler SA and Meier JC (2008) E-I balance and human diseases – from molecules to networking. Front. Mol. Neurosci. (2008) 1:2. doi:10.3389/neuro.02.002.2008
Received: 22 January 2008; paper pending published: 29 January 2008; accepted: 30 January 2008; published online: 28 March 2008.
Edited by:
Robert J. Harvey, The School of Pharmacy, UK
Reviewed by:
Alaa El-Husseini, University of British Columbia, Canada
*Correspondence: Jochen C. Meier, Neuroscience Department, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Robert-Rössle-Strasse 10, 13092 Berlin, Germany. e-mail: jochen.meier@mdc-berlin.de
