page_title: Long-term potentiation
section_title: Late phase
hierarchical_section_title: Long-term potentiation / Properties / Late phase
caption_attribution_description: Proposed mechanism for the late phase of w:long-term potentiation, based on Lynch (PMID 14715912).
context_page_description: In neuroscience, long-term potentiation is a persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity. These are patterns of synaptic activity that produce a long-lasting increase in signal transmission between two neurons. The opposite of LTP is long-term depression, which produces a long-lasting decrease in synaptic strength.
  It is one of several phenomena underlying synaptic plasticity, the ability of chemical synapses to change their strength. As memories are thought to be encoded by modification of synaptic strength, LTP is widely considered one of the major cellular mechanisms that underlies learning and memory.
  LTP was discovered in the rabbit hippocampus by Terje Lømo in 1966 and has remained a popular subject of research since. Many modern LTP studies seek to better understand its basic biology, while others aim to draw a causal link between LTP and behavioral learning. Still others try to develop methods, pharmacologic or otherwise, of enhancing LTP to improve learning and memory. LTP is also a subject of clinical research, for example, in the areas of Alzheimer's disease and addiction medicine.
context_section_description: Late LTP (L-LTP) is the natural extension of E-LTP. Unlike E-LTP, which is independent of protein synthesis, L-LTP requires gene transcription and protein synthesis in the postsynaptic cell. Two phases of L-LTP exist: the first depends upon protein synthesis, while the second depends upon both gene transcription and protein synthesis. These phases are occasionally called LTP2 and LTP3, respectively, with E-LTP referred to as LTP1 under this nomenclature.
caption: The early and late phases of LTP are thought to communicate via the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK).[30]
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