LTP Does Not Equal Memory

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter illustrates that long-term potentiation (LTP) does not equal memory. It is a critical component of the complicated process of memory formation. A very broad range of studies, such as the block experiment, the mimic experiment, and the measure experiment, supports the hypothesis that hippocampal LTP is involved in triggering consolidation of memories in the cortex. It's important to keep in mind the subtleties of the hippocampal/cortical memory system. A second message of this chapter is that hippocampal LTP need not be constrained to contributing to this single process. A powerful mechanism of activity-dependent synaptic plasticity such as LTP, particularly one that has the capacity for detecting three- or four-way coincidence events, has likely been adapted to multiple roles in the hippocampus and elsewhere in the brain. Hippocampal LTP contributes to the formation of complicated associations and abstract spatial constructs, and LTP may serve as part of a short-term memory buffer for trace associative conditioning. Far from being mysterious investigations into the minutia of synaptic plasticity, studies of LTP and the molecular basis of memory are giving important insights of great relevance to the human condition. A final theme of this chapter is that the analogy between the last phase LTP (L-LTP) and long-term memory is important and valid, independent of whether LTP itself is used in the behaving animal for memory storage per se.