Hippocampal Synaptic Enhancement as a Basis for Learning and Memory: A Selected Review of Current Evidence from Behaving Animals

Since the discovery of long-term synaptic enhancement and long-term potentiation (LTE/LTP), a substantial body of empirical support has accumulated for the theory that LTP of hippocampal synapses represents the experimental activation of processes that normally subserve distributed information storage. Although most experiments have yielded data that tend to support this hypothesis, recently some of this evidence has been called into question. This chapter examines the current status of the suggestion that a process based on LTP underlies information storage. In addition to electrically induced LTP, another form of synaptic strengthening can be induced through behavioral means at some hippocampal synapses. The extent to which this latter process (short-term exploratory modulation) may reflect information acquisition by the hippocampus is also discussed.