Long-Term Potentiation: BBS Call for Commentators

[Stevan Harnad]

    Below is the abstract of a forthcoming BBS target article on:

        LONG-TERM POTENTIATION: WHAT'S LEARNING GOT TO DO WITH IT?
        by Tracey J. Shors & Louis D. Matzel

This article has been accepted for publication in Behavioral and Brain
Sciences (BBS), an international, interdisciplinary journal providing
Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in
the biobehavioral and cognitive sciences.

Commentators must be BBS Associates or nominated by a BBS Associate. To
be considered as a commentator for this article, to suggest other
appropriate commentators, or for information about how to become a BBS
Associate, please send EMAIL to:

    bbs at cogsci.soton.ac.uk 

      or write to:

    Behavioral and Brain Sciences
    Department of Psychology
    University of Southampton
    Highfield, Southampton
    SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM

    http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/bbs/
    http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/bbs/
    ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/BBS/
    ftp://ftp.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/pub/bbs/
    gopher://gopher.princeton.edu:70/11/.libraries/.pujournals

If you are not a BBS Associate, please send your CV and the name of a
BBS Associate (there are currently over 10,000 worldwide) who is
familiar with your work. All past BBS authors, referees and commentators
are eligible to become BBS Associates.

To help us put together a balanced list of commentators, please give
some indication of the aspects of the topic on which you would bring
your areas of expertise to bear if you were selected as a commentator.
An electronic draft of the full text is available for inspection by
anonymous ftp (or gopher or world-wide-web) according to the
instructions that follow after the abstract.
____________________________________________________________________

                LONG-TERM POTENTIATION: WHAT'S LEARNING GOT TO DO WITH IT?

                Tracey J. Shors & Louis D. Matzel
                Department of Psychology
                  and Program in Neuroscience,
                Princeton University,
                Princeton, New Jersey 08544
                shors at pucc.princeton.edu

                Department of Psychology,
                Program in Biopsychology
                  and Behavioral Neuroscience,
                Rutgers University,
                New Brunswick,
                New Jersey 08903
                matzel at rci.rutgers.edu

    KEYWORDS: NMDA, synaptic plasticity, Hebbian synapses, calcium,
    hippocampus, theta rhythm, spatial learning, classical
    conditioning, attention, arousal, memory systems

    ABSTRACT: Long-term potentiation (LTP) is operationally defined as
    a long-lasting increase in synaptic efficacy which follows
    high-frequency stimulation of afferent fibers. Since the first full
    description of the phenomenon in 1973, exploration of the
    mechanisms underlying LTP induction has been one of the most active
    areas of research in neuroscience. Of principal interest to those
    who study LTP, particularly LTP in the mammalian hippocampus, is
    its presumed role in the establishment of stable memories, a role
    consistent with "Hebbian" descriptions of memory formation. Other
    characteristics of LTP, including its rapid induction, persistence,
    and correlation with natural brain rhythms, provide circumstantial
    support for this connection to memory storage. Nonetheless, there
    is little empirical evidence that directly links LTP to the storage
    of memories. In this commentary, we review a range of cellular and
    behavioral characteristics of LTP, and evaluate whether those
    characteristics are consistent with the purported role of
    hippocampal LTP in memory formation. We suggest that much of the
    present focus on LTP reflects a preconception that LTP is a
    learning mechanism, although the empirical evidence often suggests
    that LTP is unsuitable for such a role. As an alternative to
    serving as a memory storage device, we propose that LTP may serve
    as a neural equivalent to an arousal or attention device in the
    brain. Accordingly, LTP is suggested to nonspecifically increase
    the effective salience of discrete external stimuli and thereby is
    capable of facilitating the induction of memories at distant
    synapses. In an environment open to critical inquiry, other
    hypotheses regarding the functional utility of this intensely
    studied mechanism are conceivable;  the intent of this article is
    not exclusively to promote a single hypothesis, but rather to
    stimulate discussion about the neural mechanisms that are likely to
    underlie memory storage, and to appraise whether LTP can reasonably
    be considered a viable candidate for such a mechanism.

--------------------------------------------------------------
To help you decide whether you would be an appropriate commentator for
this article, an electronic draft is retrievable by anonymous ftp from
ftp.princeton.edu according to the instructions below (the filename is
bbs.shors). Please do not prepare a commentary on this draft.
Just let us know, after having inspected it, what relevant expertise
you feel you would bring to bear on what aspect of the article.
-------------------------------------------------------------
These files are also on the World Wide Web and the easiest way to
retrieve them is with Netscape, Mosaic, gopher, archie, veronica, etc.
Here are some of the URLs you can use to get to the BBS Archive:

    http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/bbs/
    http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/bbs/Archive/bbs.shors.html
    ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/BBS/bbs.shors
    ftp://ftp.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/pub/bbs/Archive/bbs.shors
    gopher://gopher.princeton.edu:70/11/.libraries/.pujournals

To retrieve a file by ftp from an Internet site, type either:
ftp ftp.princeton.edu
   or
ftp 128.112.128.1
   When you are asked for your login, type:
anonymous
   Enter password as queried (your password is your actual userid:
   yourlogin at yourhost.whatever.whatever - be sure to include the "@")
cd /pub/harnad/BBS
   To show the available files, type:
ls
   Next, retrieve the file you want with (for example):
get bbs.shors
   When you have the file(s) you want, type:
quit