For more than 70 years, Hebbian theory which is colloquially summarized as, “neurons that fire together, wire together,” singularly dominated the neuroscientists’ view of how synapses become stronger or weaker over time. While this well-studied theory is the basis of several advancements in the field of neuroscience, it has some limitations. In 2017, researchers in the Magee lab discovered a new and powerful type of synaptic plasticity – behavioral timescale synaptic plasticity (BTSP) – which overcomes these limitations and offers a model that best mimics the timescale of how we learn or remember related events in real life.
I just realized there was more than just Hebbian learning going on in the brain. There are also STDP-like learnings going on, too. And now add BTSP to the mix.
“The discovery that one part of the brain (entorhinal complex) can direct another brain region (hippocampus) to alter the location and activity of its neurons (place cells) is an extraordinary finding in neuroscience,”
Not sure what they meant when they claimed that the entorhinal complex (EC) is directing the hippocampus to alter the location of place cells. Are they saying that instead of activating place cell A in location X the brain activates place cell B instead if instructed by the EC? Or are they saying place cell A will get activated nonetheless but the EC is changing which spatial location place cell A is associated to?
I think it means that new place cell clusters get formed in the hippocampus (CA1) by impulse from the entorhinal cortex (EC3). I assume that if older place cell clusters still remain valid (because they keep pointing to important spatial locations), they will continue to exist.
Unrelated to the main article above this link is a short read for those new to neuroscience that want to know more about differences btw Hebbian, STDP and BTSP.