PSY 3061 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Dentate Gyrus, Short-Snouted Seahorse, Synaptic Plasticity
Document Summary
Synaptic plasticity: activity dependent changes in synaptic transmission, different time courses, multiple forms, multiple mechanisms, bi-directional process (increase or decrease, plastic phenomenon. Ltp at glutamatergic synapses in hippocampus: schaffer collaterals ca1 pyramidal cell dendrites, mossy fibers (granule cells) pyramidal cell dendrites, perforant path granule cells dendrites (dg, rich in nmda receptors (glutamatergic neuron and receptor type) Initiation of ltp can only occur following high, brief stimulation. Properties of hippocampal ltp that makes it an attractive neural mechanism for information storage. Long-term change in baseline activity of neuron: 0-20 = slow baseline, elevation in neural activity for very long time (minutes) If stimulus lasts too long, it is non-specific: state dependent, the state of postsynaptic membrane determines whether or not ltp occurs, presynaptic activity must be paired with postsynaptic depolarization, processes must be tightly linked in time (100 msec) Input specificity: ltp is restricted to activated synapses.
