Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Storing memories in dendritic channels

Nature Neuroscience volume 7, pages 98–100 (2004)Cite this article

An elegant study in this issue shows that induction of synaptic plasticity can also trigger long-lasting increases in dendritic excitability near the potentiated synapses. This may represent a new locus for memory storage and a substrate for metaplasticity.

Storage of memories must involve some long-term physical changes in the brain. But where should we look for these changes? Most neuroscience textbooks will tell you that memory storage involves modification of the strength of synaptic connections between neurons. This view, proposed over 50 years ago by the psychologist Donald Hebb, has been enormously influential and forms the basis of learning in many neural network models. Much experimental work has also supported this idea, particularly in simpler systems such as Aplysia, as well as in mammalian systems where Hebbian long-term potentiation and depression (LTP and LTD) have been demonstrated at many synaptic connections and shown to be correlated with learning. Nevertheless, there remains some controversy about whether these synaptic changes alone are both necessary and sufficient to fully account for memory storage in the brain1.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Plastic dendrites.

References

  1. Martin, S.J., Grimwood, P.D. & Morris, R.G. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 23, 649–711 (2000).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Frick, A., Magee, J. & Johnston, D. Nat. Neurosci. 7, 126–135 (2004).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Häusser, M., Spruston, N. & Stuart, G.J. Science 290, 739–744 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Golding, N.L., Staff, N.P. & Spruston, N. Nature 418, 326–331 (2002).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Magee, J.C. & Johnston, D. Science 275, 209–213 (1997).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Johnston, D., Hoffman, D.A., Colbert, C.M. & Magee, J.C. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 9, 288–292 (1999).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Hoffman, D.A., Magee, J.C., Colbert, C.M. & Johnston, D. Nature 387, 869–875 (1997).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Marder, E., Abbott, L.F., Turrigiano, G.G., Liu, Z. & Golowasch, J. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 13481–13486 (1996).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Bliss, T.V. & Lomo, T. J. Physiol. (Lond.) 232, 331–356 (1973).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Zhang, W. & Linden, D.J. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 4, 885–900 (2003).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Wang, Z., Xu, N.L., Wu, C.P., Duan, S. & Poo, M.M. Neuron 37, 463–472 (2003).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Ganguly, K., Kiss, L. & Poo, M. Nat. Neurosci. 3, 1018–1026 (2000).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Yasuda, R., Sabatini, B.L. & Svoboda, K. Nat. Neurosci. 6, 948–955 (2003).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Poirazi, P. & Mel, B.W. Neuron 29, 779–796 (2001).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Turrigiano, G.G. & Nelson, S.B. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 10, 358–364 (2000).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The author is at the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research and Department of Physiology, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    Michael Häusser

Authors
  1. Michael Häusser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Häusser, M. Storing memories in dendritic channels. Nat Neurosci 7, 98–100 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0204-98

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0204-98

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing