Topic: short-term synaptic plasticity (STP)

One of the most fundamental tenets in neuroscience is that information is stored in the strength of synapses, and that learning relies on changes in synaptic strength. Here we aim to extend this tenet into the temporal domain by proposing that synapses not only learn to strengthen or weaken, but can learn when to be weak or strong on the subsecond scale. It has been known for more than half a century that synapses exhibit short-term synaptic plasticity (STP): a form of presynaptic, use-dependent, plasticity in which consecutive spikes can elicit progressively depressing (short-term depression/