Modeling Maintenance of Long-Term Potentiation in Clustered Synapses: Long-Term Memory without Bistability

Figure 3

Dynamics of synaptic weights. (a) and (b) Representative time courses for 10-synapse clusters over 400 days. Synapses with higher exhibit less volatility (smaller percent changes in ). Synapses with high weights often remain strong for >1 yr. (c) A representative time course of the number of strong synapses, , in a 10-synapse cluster. Although individual weights undergo large fluctuations, is extremely stable, remaining between 4 and 7 for periods of over a year and rarely leaving this range during 5.5 years.

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