Report for the Science Subcommittee of the German Parliament, Section 3.3.1; A.V.M. Herz, editor; 2006.
R. Kempter and D. Schmitz
Changing synaptic connections between neurons is widely assumed to be the mechanism by which memory traces are encoded and stored in the central nervous system. In its most general form, the "synaptic plasticity and memory hypothesis" states that during formation of memories appropriate synapses undergo activitydependent alterations, and that synaptic plasticity is both necessary and sufficient for the storage of information underlying the type of memory mediated by the brain area in which that plasticity is observed. This hypothesis has been formulated mainly from theoretical reasoning about the computational power of neural networks. Very recently, experimental evidence on this hypothesis has accumulated to an amount that can now be considered as increasingly evidential. Nevertheless, the question of how memories can persist despite ongoing synaptic plasticity is still unresolved. This "plasticitystability dilemma" is lately becoming an important focus of research on synaptic physiology.
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