ABSTRACT
One of the basic tenets of information storage is that repetitive activation induces a change in the number or structure of synapses, altering synaptic efficacy such that future information traverses the synapse more readily. This hypothesis was postulated by Hebb to underlie functions such as learning and memory (Hebb, 1949). At the time of Hebb’s proposal, however, there was little evidence to suggest that synapses were capable of change, either anatomically or physiologically. Technological advances since that time, particularly in electrophysiology and electron microscopy, have confirmed that synapses are, indeed, quite plastic, changing their structure and function in response to a number of stimuli and events. Current research is now focusing not on whether synapses change, but on how they change.
