Long-term potentiation

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a persistent increase in synaptic strength following high-frequency stimulation of a chemical synapse. Studies of LTP are often carried out in slices of the hippocampus, an important organ for learning and memory. In such studies, electrical recordings are made from cells and plotted in a graph such as this one. This graph compares the response to stimuli in synapses that have undergone LTP versus synapses that have not undergone LTP. Synapses that have undergone LTP tend to have stronger electrical responses to stimuli than other synapses. The term long-term potentiation comes from the fact that this increase in synaptic strength, or potentiation, lasts a very long time compared to other processes that affect synaptic strength.[1]

In neuroscience, long-term potentiation (LTP) is a persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity. These are patterns of synaptic activity that produce a long-lasting increase in signal transmission between two neurons.[2] The opposite of LTP is long-term depression, which produces a long-lasting decrease in synaptic strength.

It is one of several phenomena underlying synaptic plasticity, the ability of chemical synapses to change their strength. As memories are thought to be encoded by modification of synaptic strength,[3] LTP is widely considered one of the major cellular mechanisms that underlies learning and memory.[2][3]

LTP was discovered in the rabbit hippocampus by Terje Lømo in 1966 and has remained a popular subject of research since. Many modern LTP studies seek to better understand its basic biology, while others aim to draw a causal link between LTP and behavioral learning. Still, others try to develop methods, pharmacologic or otherwise, of enhancing LTP to improve learning and memory. LTP is also a subject of clinical research, for example, in the areas of Alzheimer's disease and addiction medicine.

  1. ^ Paradiso MA, Bear MF, Connors BW (2007). Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain. Hagerstwon, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. p. 718. ISBN 978-0-7817-6003-4.
  2. ^ a b Cooke SF, Bliss TV (July 2006). "Plasticity in the human central nervous system". Brain. 129 (Pt 7): 1659–73. doi:10.1093/brain/awl082. PMID 16672292.
  3. ^ a b Bliss TV, Collingridge GL (January 1993). "A synaptic model of memory: long-term potentiation in the hippocampus". Nature. 361 (6407): 31–9. Bibcode:1993Natur.361...31B. doi:10.1038/361031a0. PMID 8421494. S2CID 4326182.