The second feature is even more important. Under the right conditions, when a synapse has just had a sufficient number of superexcitatory glutamate-driven “aha’s,” something happens. The synapse becomes persistently more excitable, so that next time it takes less of an excitatory signal to get the aha. That synapse just learned something; it was “potentiated,” or strengthened. The most amazing thing is that this strengthening of the synapse can persist for a long time. A huge number of neuroscientists flail away at figuring out how this process of “long-term potentiation” works.
