Abstract
Heterosynaptic facilitation (HF), analyzed first by Kandel and Tauc (1965), is an activity-dependent, lasting amplification of synaptic transmission in convergent neural pathways. As a cellular associative mechanism, HF can account for the temporal specificity and stimulus—response specificity of classical conditioning in Aplysia (Kandel and Tauc, 1965; Kandel, 1976). Heterosynaptic facilitation is a presynaptic phenomenon in molluscs, and action potential generation in the postsynaptic neuron is neither necessary nor sufficient for HF induction in these species (Wurtz et al., 1967; Carew et al., 1984). This finding is at odds with Hebb’s postulate (Hebb, 1949) proposing that synaptic transmission is enhanced only when the presynaptic stimulus occurs in conjunction with action potential generation in the postsynaptic cell. Apart from Aplysia, plastic synaptic changes in agreement with the Hebb model have been documented in vertebrate ganglion cells (Schulman and Weight, 1976; Kumamoto and Kuba, 1983; Mochida and Libet, 1985), in the hippocampus (McNaughton et al., 1978; Levy and Steward, 1979; Lynch et al., 1983; Kuhnt, 1984; Scharfman and Sarvey, 1985; Wigstrom and Gustafsson, 1985; Wigstrom et al., 1986; Kelso et al., 1986; Malinow and Miller, 1986), and in the visual cortex (Hubel and Wiesel, 1965; Rauschecker and Singer, 1981; Bienenstock et al., 1983; Fregnac and Imbert, 1984; Bear and Singer, 1986).
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Baranyi, A., Szente, M.B. (1988). Postsynaptic Activity-Dependent Facilitation of Excitatory Synaptic Transmission in the Neocortex. In: Woody, C.D., Alkon, D.L., McGaugh, J.L. (eds) Cellular Mechanisms of Conditioning and Behavioral Plasticity. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9610-0_36
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