title: Beyond spike timing: the role of nonlinear plasticity and unreliable synapses.
abstract: Spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) strengthens synapses that are activated immediately before a postsynaptic spike, and weakens those that are activated after a spike. To prevent an uncontrolled growth of the synaptic strengths, weakening must dominate strengthening for uncorrelated spike times. However, this weight-normalization property would preclude Hebbian potentiation when the pre- and postsynaptic neurons are strongly active without specific spike-time correlations. We show that nonlinear STDP as inherent in the data of Markram et al. [(1997) Science 275:213-215] can preserve the benefits of both weight normalization and Hebbian plasticity, and hence can account for learning based on spike-time correlations and on mean firing rates. As examples we consider the moving-threshold property of the Bienenstock-Cooper-Munro rule, the development of direction-selective simple cells by changing short-term synaptic depression, and the joint adaptation of axonal and dendritic delays. Without threshold nonlinearity at low frequencies, the development of direction selectivity does not stabilize in a natural stimulation environment. Without synaptic unreliability there is no causal development of axonal and dendritic delays.
authors.affiliation: Physiological Institute, University of Bern, Buehleplatz 5, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. wsenn@cns.unibe.ch
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Senn
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors