Linking LTP with Learning and Memory -- 2006 (350): tw297 -- Science Signaling

Linking LTP with Learning and Memory -- 2006 (350): tw297 -- Science Signaling: "This result suggests that LTP was necessary for storing spatial information."

The phenomenon of synaptic long-term potentiation (LTP) was discovered more than 30 years ago in the hippocampus. Although it is commonly thought that hippocampal LTP is induced by learning, there has not been a direct demonstration (see the Perspective by Bliss et al.). Whitlock et al. recorded field potentials from multiple sites in hippocampal area CA1 before and after single-trial inhibitory avoidance learning. Field potentials increased on a subset of the electrodes, and these could be specifically related to the learning event. Pastalkova et al. reversed hippocampal LTP in freely moving animals using a cell-permeable inhibitor of a protein kinase. Reversal was accompanied by a complete disruption of previously acquired long-term memory in a place avoidance task, even when the kinase inhibitor was infused only during the consolidation interval.