Transmission between pairs of hippocampal slice neurons: quantal levels, oscillations, and LTP.

Long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic transmission after coincident pre- and postsynaptic activity is considered a cellular model of changes underlying learning and memory. In intact tissue, LTP has been observed only between populations of neurons, making analysis of mechanisms difficult. Transmission between individual pre- and postsynaptic hippocampal cells was studied, suggesting quantal amplitude distributions with little variability in quantal size. LTP between such pairs is manifested by large, persistent, and synapse-specific potentiation with a shift in amplitude distribution that suggests presynaptic changes. Oscillations in amplitude of transmission, apparently of presynaptic origin, are common and can be triggered by LTP.