Author&s Response Tracey J. Shors & Louis D. Matzel (1997) Long-term potentiation: What's learning got to do with it? BBS 20:597–655
The status of LTP as a mechanism of memory formation in the mammalian brain
Tracey J. Shors a1andLouis D. Matzel a2 a1 Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 07728
shors@rci.rutgers.edu a2 Department of Psychology, Program in Biopsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903
matzel@rci.rutgers.edu
Abstract
Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a long-lasting increase in synaptic efficacy that many consider the best candidate currently available for a neural mechanism of memory formation and/or storage in the mammalian brain. In our target article, LTP:
What's
learning
got
to
do
with
it?, we concluded that there was insufficient data to warrant such a conclusion. In their commentaries, Jeffery and Zhadin raise a number of important issues that we did not raise, both for and against the hypothesis. Although we agree with a number of these issues, we maintain that there remains insufficient evidence that LTP is a memory mechanism.
