title: Formation and Maintenance of Robust Long-Term Information Storage in the Presence of Synaptic Turnover.
abstract: A long-standing problem is how memories can be stored for very long times despite the volatility of the underlying neural substrate, most notably the high turnover of dendritic spines and synapses. To address this problem, here we are using a generic and simple probabilistic model for the creation and removal of synapses. We show that information can be stored for several months when utilizing the intrinsic dynamics of multi-synapse connections. In such systems, single synapses can still show high turnover, which enables fast learning of new information, but this will not perturb prior stored information (slow forgetting), which is represented by the compound state of the connections. The model matches the time course of recent experimental spine data during learning and memory in mice supporting the assumption of multi-synapse connections as the basis for long-term storage.
authors.affiliation: Third Physics Institute, Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany.|Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fauth
authors.affiliation: Third Physics Institute, Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany.|Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Florentin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wörgötter
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany.|Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tetzlaff
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology; D049229:Dendritic Spines / Q000502:physiology*; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*