Silent synapses and the emergence of a postsynaptic mechanism for LTP

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Abstract
Silent synapses cannot mediate neurotransmission. Kerchner and Nicoll discuss different mechanisms that have been proposed to underlie synaptic silence, and conclude that LTP and synaptic unsilencing occur by a postsynaptic mechanism that involves AMPA receptor recruitment. Silent synapses abound in the young brain, representing an early step in the pathway of experience-dependent synaptic development. Discovered amidst the debate over whether long-term potentiation reflects a presynaptic or a postsynaptic modification, silent synapses — which in the hippocampal CA1 subfield are characterized by the presence of NMDA receptors but not AMPA receptors — have stirred some mechanistic controversy of their own. Out of this literature has emerged a model for synapse unsilencing that highlights the central role for postsynaptic AMPA-receptor trafficking in the expression of excitatory synaptic plasticity.