Transmission between pairs of hippocampal slice neurons: quantal levels, oscillations, and LTP.
Long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic transmission after coincident pre- and postsynaptic activity is considered a cellular model of changes underlying learning and memory. In intact tissue, LTP has been observed only between populations of neurons, making analysis of mechanisms difficult. Transmission between individual pre- and postsynaptic hippocampal cells was studied, suggesting quantal amplitude distributions with little variability in quantal size. LTP between such pairs is manifested by large, persistent, and synapse-specific potentiation with a shift in amplitude distribution that suggests presynaptic changes. Oscillations in amplitude of transmission, apparently of presynaptic origin, are common and can be triggered by LTP.
Malinow
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Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University, CA 94305.
D000818:Animals; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004594:Electrophysiology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology*; D007700:Kinetics; D008564:Membrane Potentials; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*