Long-term depression: multiple forms and implications for brain function

• Published in: Trends in neurosciences (Regular ed.) Vol. 30; no. 4; pp. 176 - 184
• Main Authors: Massey, Peter V, Bashir, Zafar I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2007; Elsevier Science; Elsevier Sequoia S.A
• Subjects: Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain - anatomy & histology; Brain - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects. Models. Methods; Humans; Learning; Learning. Memory; Long-Term Synaptic Depression - physiology; Memory; Mental depression; Miscellaneous; Models, Neurological; Nerve Net - anatomy & histology; Nerve Net - physiology; Neurology; Neurosciences; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Synaptic Transmission - physiology; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Cerebellum; Potentiation; Memory; Central nervous system; Review; Encephalon; Learning; Acquisition process; Synaptic transmission; Molecular model; Synaptic plasticity; Synaptic depression; Hippocampus
• ISSN: 0166-2236; 1878-108X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2007.02.005

Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) remain widely accepted vertebrate models for the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie synaptic changes during learning and memory. Although LTD is a phenomenon that occurs in many regions of the CNS, it is clear that the mechanisms recruited in its induction and expression can vary, depending on many factors, including brain region and developmental time point. LTD in the hippocampus and cerebellum is probably the best characterized, although there are also other brain areas where mechanisms of LTD are well understood, and where it is thought to have a functional role.