Protracted presynaptic activity can induce long-term potentiation (LTP) or long-term depression (LTD) of the synaptic strength. However, virtually all the experiments testing how LTP and LTD depend on the conditioning input are carried out with trains of stimuli at constant frequencies, whereas neurons in vivo most likely experience a stochastic variation of interstimulus intervals. We used a computational model of synaptic transmission to test if and to what extent the stochastic fluctuations of an input signal could alter the probability to change the state of a synapse. See paper for conclusions.
Model Type: Synapse
Model Concept(s): Synaptic Plasticity; Long-term Synaptic Plasticity; Facilitation; Post-Tetanic Potentiation; Depression
Simulation Environment: QBasic/QuickBasic/Turbo Basic/VBA
Implementer(s): Migliore, Michele [Michele.Migliore at Yale.edu]
References:
Migliore M, Lansky P. (1999). Long-term potentiation and depression induced by a stochastic conditioning of a model synapse. Biophysical journal. 77 [PubMed]