Ltp, memory and alzheimer´s disease

The seminal papers by Bliss, Lømo and Gardner-Medwin reporting the discovery of long-term potentiation was a transformational event for neuroscience. On the one hand, it helped drive an immense body of research aimed at understanding the cell biological mechanisms present at synapses by which engrams might be stored, a holy grail for many in neuroscience. In the other direction, it drove an equally intense interest in discovering the extent to which LTP does indeed serve as a memory mechanism. Additionally, in more recent times, LTP has become the go-to form of plasticity which researchers target when investigating how neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease affect memory performance. This talk will briefly summarize some of the history of the advances made in these critically important research areas, including some of the research from my lab as cases in point. While it cannot be said that either area has been fully solved, 50 years of LTP research has been most productive in promoting our understanding of general synaptic and cellular physiology as well as synaptic plasticity and its role in memory. One example will be our work on soluble precursor protein-alpha, which plays a normal role in LTP and memory, is disrupted in Alzheimer’s disease, and which may be a therapeutic target for Alzheimer’s and other neurological disorders. None