Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Synaptic plasticity

Highs and lows

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 2, page 380 (2001)Cite this article

Lasting increases or decreases in the strength of glutamate synapses — long-term potentiation (LTP) or depression (LTD) — occur following activity-dependent changes in calcium concentration in the postsynaptic neuron. Paradoxically, both LTP and LTD seem to depend on increases in intracellular calcium. This has led to the proposal that the direction of the change in synaptic strength is determined by the size of the increase in postsynaptic calcium concentration, with progressively higher calcium causing first LTD and then LTP.

Cho et al. have tested this theory in rat perirhinal cortex by using different concentrations of EGTA to buffer activity-dependent increases in intracellular postsynaptic calcium to different degrees. They found that stimulation that would normally cause LTP induced LTD instead if a high concentration of EGTA was present to limit the rise in calcium concentration.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Cho, K. et al. An experimental test of the role of postsynaptic calcium levels in determining synaptic strength using perirhinal cortex of rat. J. Physiol. 532, 459–466 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

FURTHER READING

  1. Malenka, R. C. & Nicoll, R. A. Long-term potentiation — a decade of progress? Science 285, 1870–1874 (1999)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Rachel Jones
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jones, R. Highs and lows. Nat Rev Neurosci 2, 380 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35077525

Download citation

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35077525

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing