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Nature 431, 782-788 (14 October 2004) | doi:10.1038/nature03012; Published online 13 October 2004

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review article Cortical rewiring and information storage

D. B. Chklovskii1, B. W. Mel2 & K. Svoboda1,3

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Current thinking about long-term memory in the cortex is focused on changes in the strengths of connections between neurons. But ongoing structural plasticity in the adult brain, including synapse formation/elimination and remodelling of axons and dendrites, suggests that memory could also depend on learning-induced changes in the cortical 'wiring diagram'. Given that the cortex is sparsely connected, wiring plasticity could provide a substantial boost in storage capacity, although at a cost of more elaborate biological machinery and slower learning.

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