Synaptic Modifications and Memory: An Electrophysiological Analysis

Understanding memory and learning is one of the major goals of neuroscientists and psychologists. The author introduces the reader to the current state of knowledge of the mechanisms underlying memory by providing extensive reviews of contemporary results including behavioural approaches and molecular studies. He presents results that his group obtained by analyzing electrical activity, including single neuron measurements. As a major experimental model, the phenomenon of hippocampal long-term potentiation was studied. The so-called quantal analysis - a quantitative method - was applied to study mammalian brain plasticity. Short-and long-term synaptic plasticities were registered both in vivo and in vitro mammalian brain preparations. Results show the involvement of mainly presynaptic location in memory; however the possible involvement of postsynaptic mechanisms is indicated by changes in quantal amplitude as shown by the author.