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Related Concept Videos

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Long-term potentiation, or LTP, is one of the ways by which synaptic plasticity—changes in the strength of chemical synapses—can occur in the brain. LTP is the process of synaptic strengthening that occurs over time between pre- and postsynaptic neuronal connections. The synaptic strengthening of LTP works in opposition to the synaptic weakening of long-term depression (LTD) and together are the main mechanisms that underlie learning and memory.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 2, 2025

Ex Vivo Optogenetic Interrogation of Long-Range Synaptic Transmission and Plasticity from Medial Prefrontal Cortex to Lateral Entorhinal Cortex
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Spike-timing-dependent plasticity rewards synchrony rather than causality.

Margarita Anisimova1, Bas van Bommel1,2, Rui Wang1

  • 1Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Falkenried 94, D-20251 Hamburg, Germany.

Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
|February 24, 2022
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) can now be studied long-term using optogenetics. This method reveals that synaptic potentiation persists for days, even with reversed activation timing, supporting the "fire together, wire together" principle.

Keywords:
LTPhippocampusoptogeneticsratsynaptic plasticity

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Synaptic Plasticity
  • Memory Mechanisms

Background:

  • Spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) is crucial for brain information storage.
  • Traditional STDP induction methods (whole-cell recordings) are time-limited (1 hour).
  • This time scale mismatch hinders understanding of synaptic memory mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To overcome the time limitations of STDP induction.
  • To investigate long-term synaptic changes induced by optogenetically controlled STDP (oSTDP).
  • To determine if synaptic potentiation persists beyond hours and is affected by activation timing.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized spectrally separated optogenetic stimulation for precise spike timing in CA3 and CA1 pyramidal cells.
  • Induced STDP (oSTDP) without requiring electrodes.
  • Assessed synaptic strength 20 minutes and 3 days post-induction.

Main Results:

  • Observed timing-dependent long-term potentiation (tLTP) and depression (tLTD) 20 minutes after oSTDP.
  • Found late tLTP persisted for 3 days with both causal and anticausal spike timing.
  • Asynchronous activity (Δt = 50 ms) did not induce potentiation.
  • Blocking activity post-induction prevented stable potentiation.

Conclusions:

  • Optogenetically induced STDP (oSTDP) allows for long-term investigation of synaptic plasticity.
  • Synaptic potentiation can be stable for days, supporting the principle that neurons that fire together, wire together.
  • Synaptic depression (tLTD) following anticausal activation appears to be a transient effect.