The ups and downs of translation-dependent plasticity.

Neuroscientists have been looking for good examples linking neuronal activity to gene expression/regulation involved in synaptic plasticity and the formation of long-term memories. New findings from Park et al. and Waung et al. in this issue of Neuron show that fast dendritic translation of the immediate-early gene Arc/Arg3.1 is involved in hippocampal mGluR-LTD, a protein synthesis-dependent form of plasticity.