Long-term Synaptic Plasticity: Circuit Perturbation and Stabilization

• Published in: The Korean journal of physiology & pharmacology Vol. 18; no. 6; pp. 457 - 460
• Main Authors: Park, Joo Min, Jung, Sung-Cherl, Eun, Su-Yong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korea (South) The Korean Physiological Society and The Korean Society of Pharmacology 01.12.2014; 대한약리학회
• Subjects: Review; 약리학; Synapse; Synaptic Plasticity; Long-term depression; Hebbian Plasticity; Long-term potentiation
• ISSN: 1226-4512; 2093-3827
• DOI: 10.4196/kjpp.2014.18.6.457

At central synapses, activity-dependent synaptic plasticity has a crucial role in information processing, storage, learning, and memory under both physiological and pathological conditions. One widely accepted model of learning mechanism and information processing in the brain is Hebbian Plasticity: long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). LTP and LTD are respectively activity-dependent enhancement and reduction in the efficacy of the synapses, which are rapid and synapse-specific processes. A number of recent studies have a strong focal point on the critical importance of another distinct form of synaptic plasticity, non-Hebbian plasticity. Non-Hebbian plasticity dynamically adjusts synaptic strength to maintain stability. This process may be very slow and occur cell-widely. By putting them all together, this mini review defines an important conceptual difference between Hebbian and non-Hebbian plasticity.