Long-term depression

Not to be confused with chronic depression, a mental disorder, or the Long Depression, an economic depression.

In neurophysiology, long-term depression (LTD) is an activity-dependent reduction in the efficacy of neuronal synapses lasting hours or longer following a long patterned stimulus. LTD occurs in many areas of the CNS with varying mechanisms depending upon brain region and developmental progress.[1]

As the opposing process to long-term potentiation (LTP), LTD is one of several processes that serves to selectively weaken specific synapses in order to make constructive use of synaptic strengthening caused by LTP. This is necessary because, if allowed to continue increasing in strength, synapses would ultimately reach a ceiling level of efficiency, which would inhibit the encoding of new information.[2] Both LTD and LTP are forms of synaptic plasticity.

  1. ^ Massey PV, Bashir ZI (April 2007). "Long-term depression: multiple forms and implications for brain function". Trends Neurosci. 30 (4): 176–84. doi:10.1016/j.tins.2007.02.005. PMID 17335914. S2CID 12326129.
  2. ^ Purves D (2008). Neuroscience (4th ed.). Sunderland, Mass: Sinauer. pp. 197–200. ISBN 978-0-87893-697-7.