A Model of Neuronal Plasticity and Some Speculations on its Relationship to Learning and Memory

Abstract

The issues pertaining to the continued adaptation of the brain’s functional activity to a changing environment comprise one of the major unresolved problems in contemporary neurobiology. A particularly contentious area no doubt has been the nature of the biochemical changes underlying learning and memory. Since those impetuous days in the’60s and early 70s when this work began to occupy a prominent position within biopsychology, an enormous amount and variety of biochemical data have entered the literature. When assembled in a logical way, these findings can provide a rather comprehensive picture of events taking place within the brain and its individual neurons during learning.