This is a very interesting article. Before diving in you may want to read the summary press release first, or the Psych Central article, where I found it first, which is a virtual word-for-word copy of the press release (that's what counts as journalism these days).
Here's the story in a nutshell: we learn by forming connections between neurons. The strength of these connections depends on the frequency (and to an extent, amplitude) of the incoming signal. For each connection (that is, each synapse) there is a 'sweet spot' - a certain frequency increases synaptic strength the most. And the frequency of this sweet spot gets higher the further away from the neuron's nucleus the synapse is (see the illustration, at right). The entire neuron, in other words, functions like a tiny sense organ attuned to specific types of signals. The authors write, "The model could explain a vast amount of data on both the rate and timing dependence of synaptic plasticity. Thus, the model provides a unified theoretical explanation of those experimental observations, and also makes novel predictions." There are more related publications here.
Here's the story in a nutshell: we learn by forming connections between neurons. The strength of these connections depends on the frequency (and to an extent, amplitude) of the incoming signal. For each connection (that is, each synapse) there is a 'sweet spot' - a certain frequency increases synaptic strength the most. And the frequency of this sweet spot gets higher the further away from the neuron's nucleus the synapse is (see the illustration, at right). The entire neuron, in other words, functions like a tiny sense organ attuned to specific types of signals. The authors write, "The model could explain a vast amount of data on both the rate and timing dependence of synaptic plasticity. Thus, the model provides a unified theoretical explanation of those experimental observations, and also makes novel predictions." There are more related publications here.
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