'Plastic' as defined, is a irreversible property of a material. One form once attained, can not come back to original form. On the contrary, synapses not only get Strengthen but also get weakened depending upon the processes going on.It means they are highly flexible system. So why do we use word Plastic to define this bidirectional property of synapses?
Yes Susan, I agree. but lets not go into physical aspects. Lets focus on behavior of neurons. Firing for example, has been seen to increase and decrease in long term potentiation and Long Term depression respectively. This was what I wanted to know about. To be precised, Does the word "Plasticity" define this flexible nature of neurons?
Thanks Susan, Cartesian dualism for me is very different from my approach of seeing the mind, body and brain. Coming to my point, lets think for example, a stimulus is given to a neuron causing action potential to occur at frequency of say, 500 hertz. It was given for short intervals but repeatedly for a long time. What do we expect theoretically, elevations in firing of presynaptic neurons and subsequent modification in postsynaptic end called LTP. Now, if we give a stimulus causing an action potential at frequency of one hertz for long intervals of time and for a very long time to the same neuron what will happen to it? Will it show long term depression (LTD) after a time?
Well, there is a term called metaplasticity as well too which further complicates the plasticity.
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