2020/01/31 by Claire Meissner-Bernard, Matthias Tsai, Matthias C. Tsai +2
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Advanced Memory and Neural Computing #Artificial intelligence #Artificial neural network #Biology #Computer science #Excitatory postsynaptic potential #Hebbian theory #Hippocampus #Inhibitory postsynaptic potential #Long-term potentiation #Metaplasticity #Neocortex #Neural dynamics and brain function #Neuroscience #Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research #Nonsynaptic plasticity #Post-tetanic potentiation #Postsynaptic potential #Psychology #Synapse #Synaptic augmentation #Synaptic fatigue #Synaptic plasticity #Synaptic scaling #q-bio.NC
paper · pdf · doi:10.3389/fnsyn.2020.585539
published as Front. Synaptic Neurosci. (2020) 12:585539
openalex publication_date 2020/11/02 · arxiv created 2020/11/18 · arxiv updated 2020/11/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Experiments have shown that the same stimulation pattern that causes Long-Term Potentiation in proximal synapses, will induce Long-Term Depression in distal ones. In order to understand these, and other, surprising observations we use a phenomenological model of Hebbian plasticity at the location of the synapse. Our model describes the Hebbian condition of joint activity of pre- and postsynaptic neurons in a compact form as the interaction of the glutamate trace left by a presynaptic spike with the time course of the postsynaptic voltage. Instead of simulating the voltage, we test the model using experimentally recorded dendritic voltage traces in hippocampus and neocortex. We find that the time course of the voltage in the neighborhood of a stimulated synapse is a reliable predictor of whether a stimulated synapse undergoes potentiation, depression, or no change. Our computational model can explain the existence of different -at first glance seemingly paradoxical- outcomes of synaptic potentiation and depression experiments depending on the dendritic location of the synapse and the frequency or timing of the stimulation.