Health

From http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070220002240.htm:

“This is a normal process that helps with the sculpting of memory,” Foster said. “After all, we do not remember everything in perfect detail and we would not want to. This same mechanism probably is used to clear the brain circuits and make them ready to be used the next day. However, this mechanism in excess may lead to rapid forgetting as seen during brain aging.”

Foster’s lab group used aged and young rats to examine the relationships between LTD, aging and memory. The animals were trained to find a hidden platform to climb out of a pool of water - something they learned quickly with repetition.

When the researchers examined the animals’ neurons and used a slow, weak electrical signal to make the synapses less sensitive - an effort to squelch or depress the cellular communication - he found that the samples from younger animals and older animals that had the highest memory scores throughout their lives were more resistant to the interference. However, aged animals with impaired memories displayed what was termed as “robust long-term depression.”