The Eloquent Silent Synapse

Philippe Vincent-Lamarre; Michael Lynn; Jean-Claude Béïque

doi:10.1016/j.tins.2018.07.002

The Eloquent Silent Synapse

Trends Neurosci. 2018 Sep;41(9):557-559. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2018.07.002.

Authors

Philippe Vincent-Lamarre¹, Michael Lynn¹, Jean-Claude Béïque²

Affiliations

¹ University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute's Center for Neural Dynamics, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada; These authors contributed equally to this work.
² University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute's Center for Neural Dynamics, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada. Electronic address: jbeique@uottawa.ca.

PMID: 30143180
DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2018.07.002

Abstract

The ability of central synapses to undergo long-term potentiation (LTP) still captures the imagination of scientists and has become one of the most fascinating and deeply studied questions in modern neuroscience. By the mid-1990s, however, the field was deeply ensnarled in trying to answer a passionately dichotomous question: is LTP expressed by a pre- or a postsynaptic mechanism? Experimental results that could only be seen by many as being incontrovertibly contradictory presented a perplexing conundrum. However, two papers published in 1995 fundamentally redefined critical assumptions and provided a cunningly simple and elegant solution to an otherwise inextricable impasse.

Keywords: AMPA receptors; CA1; hippocampus; plasticity; postsynaptic; synapses.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Long-Term Potentiation / physiology*
Post-Synaptic Density / physiology*
Presynaptic Terminals / physiology*
Synapses / physiology*

Grants and funding

CIHR/Canada