ABSTRACT
Timothy Bliss and Terje Lomo are best known for their discovery of long-term potentiation – a phenomenon whereby brief high-frequency impulses at certain synapses in the brain produce long-lasting increases in the efficacy of neurotransmission – a property believed to underlie the neural basis of learning and memory. Since the publication of Bliss and Lomo's pioneering work in 1973, thousands of papers have been published on long-term potentiation (LTP), and compelling evidence shows that it takes place in the neural circuits underlying learning and memory. The flow of calcium into the dentate cell is crucial for generating LTP probably because it acts as an intracellular messenger that activates a number of proteins involved in changing cellular function. To make matters more fascinating, there is evidence that LTP is accompanied by increased release of glutamate from the presynaptic perforant path neurons.
