page_title: Long-term potentiation
section_title: Models and theory
hierarchical_section_title: Long-term potentiation / History / Models and theory
caption_attribution_description: English: Long term potentiation. A synapse is repeatedly stimulated, sending neurotransmitters from the axon terminal (left) across the synapse to the dendrites of a second neuron (right).
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: The physical and biological mechanism of LTP is still not understood, but some successful models have been developed. Studies of dendritic spines, protruding structures on dendrites that physically grow and retract over the course of minutes or hours, have suggested a relationship between the electrical resistance of the spine and the effective synapse strength, due to their relationship with intracellular calcium transients. Mathematical models such as BCM Theory, which depends also on intracellular calcium in relation to NMDA receptor voltage gates, have been developed since the 1980s and modify the traditional a priori Hebbian learning model with both biological and experimental justification. Still others have proposed re-arranging or synchronizing the relationship between receptor regulation, LTP, and synaptic strength.
caption: A synapse is repeatedly stimulated.
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