Competition between recently potentiated synaptic inputs reveals a winner-take-all phase of synaptic tagging and capture

Significance Our findings will refine the existing concept of a simple, linear phase model of memory in terms of temporal constraints on associative memory formation. We provide evidence for an in-between situation in which a “winner-take-all” process shapes the process of stable long-term memory storage. We show that when the temporal persistence of plasticity is enabled on one pathway by virtue of the availability of proteins from another earlier or later event, potentiation of a further third pathway around the same time may trigger sufficient competition to prevent persistent potentiation on all pathways. This mimics the daily situation of hippocampal neurons, which have to cope with the learning of new events under conditions of competition that can threaten stabilization.