Long-term synaptic potentiation in the superior cervical ganglion.
Brief tetanic stimulation of the preganglionic nerves to the superior cervical ganglion enhances the postganglionic response to single preganglionic stimuli for 1 to 3 hours. This long-term potentiation of transmission through the ganglion is apparently not attributable to a persistent muscarinic action of the preganglionic neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, since neither the magnitude nor the time course of the phenomenon is reduced by atropine. The decay of long-term potentiation can be described by a first-order kinetic process with a mean time constant of 80 minutes. We conclude that long-term potentiation, once considered a unique property of the hippocampus, is in fact a more general feature of synaptic function. This form of synaptic memory may significantly influence information processing and control in other regions of the nervous system, including autonomic ganglia.
D000818:Animals; D005728:Ganglia, Sympathetic / Q000502:physiology*; D007700:Kinetics; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D051381:Rats; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*; D009435:Synaptic Transmission; D013997:Time Factors