Predicting Not to Predict Too Much: How the Cellular Machinery of Memory Anticipates the Uncertain Future

This chapter addresses the following question: How does the cellular machinery of longterm memory anticipate the uncertain future, where the future lies at least a day head? Memories are made mostly for the sake of present and future. Experience-dependent modifications in the individual's behavior draw on the past to permit better adapted responses to ongoing reality as well as to the reality to come. Being able to anticipate even limited types or aspects of events is expected to endow the species with significant advantages. Under certain contextual and temporal conditions, our brain seems to be able to do just that. This requires that the plasticity machinery in the brain operate under the assumption that the future is uncertain and that information stored is likely to require quick and recurrent updating. This assumption should be reflected at multiple levels of organization of the brain, including at the synaptic and cellular level.