Expression mechanisms underlying long-term potentiation: a postsynaptic view
Open accessAbstract
This review summarizes the various experiments that have been carried out to determine if the expression of long-term potentiation (LTP), in particular N -methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-dependent LTP, is presynaptic or postsynaptic. Evidence for a presynaptic expression mechanism comes primarily from experiments reporting that glutamate overflow is increased during LTP and from experiments showing that the failure rate decreases during LTP. However, other experimental approaches, such as monitoring synaptic glutamate release by recording astrocytic glutamate transporter currents, have failed to detect any change in glutamate release during LTP. In addition, the discovery of silent synapses, in which LTP rapidly switches on α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptor function at NMDA-receptor-only synapses, provides a postsynaptic mechanism for the decrease in failures during LTP. It is argued that the preponderance of evidence favours a postsynaptic expression mechanism, whereby NMDA receptor activation results in the rapid recruitment of AMPA receptors as well as a covalent modification of synaptic AMPA receptors.
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- Authors
- Nicoll, R. A.
- Affiliations
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Corresponding author
- Nicoll, Roger A.
- ORCID
- Nicoll, Roger A.
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2003-04-29
- Volume
- 358
- Issue
- 1432
- Pages
- 721-726
- ISSN
- 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2970
- PMC
- PMC1693172
- OpenAlex
- W2088695147
- Cited by
- 200
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 1.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- long-term potentiation, glutamate release, silent synapses, synaptic plasticity
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Humans, Synapses, Long-Term Potentiation, Receptors, AMPA, Neurotransmitter Agents
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