Differential Effects of Short- and Long-Term Potentiation on

Introduction An understanding of how neural networks process information requires insights into the mechanisms whereby synaptic inputs translate into firing patterns. Whether a neuron fires in response to a stimulus depends not only on the strength of the excitatory synapses, but also on intrinsic cellular properties and the net balance between excitation and inhibition. It is therefore important to understand how plasticity affects the state of the network as a whole during short-term forms of synaptic plasticity such as paired-pulse facilitation (PPF), as well as long-term forms of plasticity. Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a long-lasting enhancement in synaptic efficacy regarded as the neural basis for learning and memory. LTP can be observed extracellularly as an increase in the size of the field EPSP (fEPSP), as well as an increase in the size and decrease in the latency of the population spike (Bliss and Gardner-Medwin, 1973; Bliss and Lomo, 1973). The extracellularly recorde