Beyond spike timing: the role of nonlinear plasticity and unreliable synapses

Spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) strengthens synapses that are activated immediately before a postsynaptic spike, and weakens those that are activated after a spike. To prevent an uncontrolled growth of the synaptic strengths, weakening must dominate strengthening for uncorrelated spike times. However, this weight-normalization property would preclude Hebbian potentiation when the pre- and postsynaptic neurons are strongly active without specific spike-time correlations. We show that nonlinear STDP as inherent in the data of Markram et al. [(1997) Science 275:213

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2002
• Where: BC
• Authors: Walter Senn
• Keywords: BC 2002, Dendritic Delays, Spike-time Correlations, Uncorrelated Spike Times