LONG-TERM POTENTIATION AND LEARNING

Long-term potentiation (LTP), a relatively long-lived increase in syna ptic strength, remains the most popular model for the cellular process that may underlie information storage within neural systems. The stro ngest arguments for a role of LTP in memory are theoretical and involv e Hebb's Postulate, Marr's theory of hippocampal function, and neural network theory. Considering LTP research as a whole, few studies have addressed the essential question: Is LTP a process involved in learnin g and memory? The present manuscript reviews research that attempts to link LTP with learning and memory, focusing on studies utilizing elec trophysiological, pharmacological, and molecular biological methodolog ies. Most evidence firmly supports a role for LTP in learning memory. However, an unequivocal experimental demonstration of a contribution o f LTP to memory is hampered by our lack of knowledge of the biological basis of memory and of the ways in which memories are represented in ensembles of neurons, the existence of a variety of cellular forms of LTP, and the likely resistance of distributed memory stores to degrada tion by treatments that incompletely disrupt LTP.