Metaplasticity is a term originally coined by W.C. Abraham and M.F. Bear to refer to the plasticity of synaptic plasticity.
 Until that time synaptic plasticity had referred to the plastic nature of "individual" synapses.
 However this new form referred to the plasticity of the plasticity itself, thus the term "meta"-plasticity.
 The idea is that the synapse's previous history of activity determines its current plasticity.
 This may play a role in some of the underlying mechanisms thought to be important in memory and learning such as long-term potentiation (LTP), long-term depression (LTD) and so forth.
 These mechanisms depend on current synaptic "state", as set by ongoing extrinsic influences such as the level of synaptic inhibition, the activity of modulatory afferents such as catecholamines, and the pool of hormones affecting the synapses under study.
 Recently, it has become clear that the prior history of synaptic activity is an additional variable that influences the synaptic state, and thereby the degree, of LTP or LTD produced by a given experimental protocol.
 In a sense, then, synaptic plasticity is governed by an activity-dependent plasticity of the synaptic state; such plasticity of synaptic plasticity has been termed metaplasticity.
 There is little known about metaplasticity, and there is much research currently underway on the subject, despite its difficulty of study, because of its theoretical importance in brain and cognitive science.
 Most research of this type is done via cultured hippocampus cells or hippocampal slices.
Mitchell Burt Bainwol (born March 2, 1959) is a trade association executive currently serving as the President and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.
 He previously was Chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) from 2003 (when he succeeded Hilary Rosen) until 2011.
 Prior to filling that position, he worked for 25 years in politics and federal policy-making.
 In August 2011, Cary Sherman succeeded Bainwol as chairman and CEO of the RIAA, and Bainwol became the President and CEO of the Alliance.
Michael D. Lockshin, M.D., is an American professor and medical researcher.
 He is a researcher of autoimmune diseases, with focus on antiphospholipid syndrome and lupus.
 He is currently Professor of Medicine and Obstetrics-Gynecology at the Weill-Cornell University Medical College in New York City.
 In addition, he is Director, Barbara Volcker Center for Women and Rheumatic Disease and Co-Director, Mary Kirkland Center for Lupus Research both at the Hospital for Special Surgery
Lynn Bry is the Founder and Executive Director of The Madsci Network and an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
 She was awarded her MD and a PhD in Molecular Microbiology and Pathogenesis in 1998 from Washington University School of Medicine.
 Her research currently involves the study of lymphocyte-epithelial cross-talk in the small intestine and colon.
 She has authored or co-authored over 35 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, including an original paper in Science detailing a molecular model of host-microbial cross-talk in the small intestine.
 Bry teaches medical school courses and is also a lecturer and mentor for the Project Success Program at Harvard Medical School.
Robert Wood Johnson IV (born April 12, 1947) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and diplomat who is currently serving as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
 He is a great-grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I (co-founder of Johnson & Johnson), and the owner of the New York Jets of the National Football League.
The Alliance for Lupus Research (ALR) is an American voluntary health organization based in New York City whose mission is to find better treatments and ultimately prevent and cure systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE or lupus), a debilitating autoimmune disease, through supporting medical research.
 It was co-founded by philanthropist Woody Johnson, who is also the organization's chairman.
 As of 2013 the ALR's cumulative research commitment was $81,000,000.
His research currently focuses on constructing reciprocal nondomination as a regulative principle that guides agonistic deliberation between peoples in conflict as well as cultures in tension, with special but not exclusive attention to classical republicans, such as Aristotle, Cicero, and Machiavelli.
 Besides, he inquires a way in which reciprocal nondomination can be applicable to various subjects, including patriotism without nationalism, deliberative democracy, democratic authority, civic responsibility, transnationalism, and multicultural coexistence, etc..
 He is now working on books entitled, Liberty as Nondomination: Reconsidering Classical Republicanism, Machiavelli’s Silence, and Patriotism before Nationalism, and running projects “Inherited Responsibility” and “Republican Leadership.”
Fred Huffman Wilt is an American biologist who was elected as Fellow to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
 His research currently includes endoskeletal spicule of sea urchin embryos and its biomineralization cellular and molecular foundation.
Ulrike Hanna Meinhof is Professor in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Southampton, previously having worked as a professor and Chair of Cultural Studies at the University of Bradford.
 She is a specialist in discourse analysis.
 Her main areas of research currently involve ethnographic research in European border communities and a comparative media-project about the 20th century on television.
Robert W. Conn (born December 1, 1942) is President and Chief Executive Officer of The Kavli Foundation, a U.S. based foundation dedicated to the advancement of basic science research and public interest in science.
 A physicist and engineer, Conn is also the current Board Chair of the Science Philanthropy Alliance, an organization that aims to increase private support for basic science research, and Dean Emeritus of the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego).
 In the 1970s and 1980s, Conn participated in some of the earliest studies of fusion energy as a potential source of electricity, and he served on numerous federal panels, committees, and boards advising the government on the subject.
 In the early 1970s, he co-founded the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), and in the mid-1980s he led the formation of the Institute of Plasma and Fusion Research at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
 As a university administrator in the 1990s and early 2000s, Conn served as Dean of the School of Engineering at UC San Diego as it established several engineering institutes and programs, including the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, known as Calit2, the Center for Wireless Communications, and the Whitaker Center for Biomedical Engineering.
 While at UC San Diego he also led the effort to establish an endowment for the School of Engineering, which began with major gifts from Irwin and Joan Jacobs.
 Irwin M. Jacobs is the co-founder and founding CEO of Qualcomm.
 While Conn was dean, the engineering school was renamed in 1998 the Irwin and Joan Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego.
 Conn's experience in the private sector includes co-founding in 1986 Plasma & Materials Technologies, Inc. (PMT), and serving as Managing Director of Enterprise Partners Venture Capital (EPVC) from 2002 to 2008.
 Over the years he has served on numerous private and public company corporate boards.
 Conn joined The Kavli Foundation in 2009.
 He helped establish the Science Philanthropy Alliance in 2012.

Question: What is the co-founder of The Alliance for Lupus Research currently serving as?
Answer: United States Ambassador