BIO SCI 38 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Donald O. Hebb, Synaptic Plasticity, Cerebral Cortex
10 Jan 2020
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Document Summary
Proposes a biological mechanism for synaptic plasticity. This statement presaged the discovery of long-term potentiation, approximately 20 year later (lomo, 1966; Two common forms of experimental synaptic plasticity (long-term potentiation and long-term depression) are referred to as hebbian as they follow the general rules described by hebb decades earlier. Santiago ramon y cajal and donald hebb: Cajal: neurons are the function units of the nervous system and synapses are their connections. Hebb: synapses are modifiable by experience and this process may be central to memory. We will spend considerable time investigating the mechanisms of synaptic plasticity. 1) humans do not have the largest brains in the animal kingdom. 2) humans may have the largest number of neurons in the cerebral cortex (the seat of higher cognitive functions)** 3) the scaling rules for brains vary by animal order. Generally speaking, rodent brains obey rodent rules , whereas primate brains obey.
