We seek to understand
how synapses in the cerebral cortex are modified by experience. Key insight
into this process has been gained over the past 40 years by recording the
activity of cortical neurons in vivo. These studies show that a cardinal feature
of cortical neurons is stimulus-selective receptive fields. For example, neurons
in primary visual cortex show selectivity to particular stimulus attributes,
such as which eye is stimulated, or the orientation of a contrast border;
neurons in the CA1 region of hippocampus show selectivity for positions in
space; and so on. Selectivity in many cortical areas can be modified by experience
- in fact, experience-dependent shifts in selectivity are the most common
correlate of memory formation. Lasting shifts in selectivity are believed
to reflect synaptic changes that, distributed over a population cells, are
the neural basis of memory storage. Thus, we frame the question as follows:
How do cortical synapses adjust their effectiveness to modify neuronal selectivity
and store information?
By combining theoretical analysis with a reductionist experimental approach,
we have uncovered properties of synaptic modification that can, in principle,
account for observed experience-dependent changes in cellular responses We
established that synapses throughout the cerebral cortex are bidirectionally
modifiable, and that the sign or polarity of the modification depends on the
type of NMDA receptor (NMDAR) activation at the time of induction. We also
showed that the conditions required to induce long-term synaptic potentiation
(LTP) or depression (LTD) vary depending on the history of cellular or synaptic
activity, a property now called metaplasticity. The major questions that confront
us now are the molecular mechanisms of bidirectional synaptic plasticity and
metaplasticity, and-of particular importance-the contributions of these mechanisms
to naturally occurring synaptic modifications in the brain. We are employing
a wide range of techniques-biochemical, anatomical, electrophysiological,
and behavioral-to address these key questions in the hippocampus and visual
cortex.