Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Memory consolidation was first referred to in the writings of the renowned Roman teacher of rhetoric Quintillian.He noted the "curious fact... that the interval of a single night will greatly increase the strength of the memory," and presented the possibility that "... the power of recollection .. undergoes a process of ripening and maturing during the time which intervenes."
LTP could be produced by repetitive stimulation of the presynaptic terminals, and it is believed to play a role in memory function in the hippocampus, amygdala and other cortical brain structures in mammals. [2] [3] Long-term potentiation occurs when synaptic transmission becomes more effective as a result of recent activity.
Synaptic allocation pertains to mechanisms that influence how synapses come to store a given memory. [3] Intrinsic to the idea of synaptic allocation is the concept that multiple synapses can be activated by a given set of inputs, but specific mechanisms determine which synapses actually go on the encode the memory.
Calcium enters the axon terminal during an action potential, causing release of the neurotransmitter into the synaptic cleft. After its release, the transmitter binds to and activates a receptor in the postsynaptic membrane. Deactivation of the neurotransmitter.
Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a persistent increase in synaptic strength following high-frequency stimulation of a chemical synapse. Studies of LTP are often carried out in slices of the hippocampus, an important organ for learning and memory. In such studies, electrical recordings are made from cells and plotted in a graph such as this one.
Since memories are postulated to be represented by vastly interconnected neural circuits in the brain, synaptic plasticity is one of the important neurochemical foundations of learning and memory (see Hebbian theory). Plastic change often results from the alteration of the number of neurotransmitter receptors located on a synapse. [2]
Encoding of episodic memory involves persistent changes in molecular structures that alter synaptic transmission between neurons. Examples of such structural changes include long-term potentiation (LTP) or spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP). The persistent spiking in working memory can enhance the synaptic and cellular changes in the ...
Illustration of the major elements in chemical synaptic transmission. An electrochemical wave called an action potential travels along the axon of a neuron.When the wave reaches a synapse, it provokes release of a puff of neurotransmitter molecules, which bind to chemical receptor molecules located in the membrane of another neuron, on the opposite side of the synapse.