Synaptic Capture of Laterally Diffusing AMPA Receptors - An Idea That Stuck.

By the early 2000s there was strong support for the idea that synaptic function and plasticity required AMPA glutamate receptor trafficking through constitutive and regulated internalization and exocytosis. In 2002, Borgdorff and Choquet demonstrated that AMPA receptors could also diffuse laterally in the membrane and become stabilized near synapses. Subsequent studies extended this work, establishing a fundamental role for lateral diffusion in synaptic function and plasticity.