Neuronal plasticity’s tethering of potentiation to depression lets connections transform their program.

Evidence

Long-term potentiation is therefore structurally tied to long-term depression, and this tie constitutes the differentiating or transdifferentiating force of neuronal plasticity. By analogy with the process of becoming that stem cells undergo, one could claim that neuronal connections, because of their own plasticity, are always capable of changing difference, receiving or losing an imprint, or transforming their program. — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 90

Categorization

• XREF: The language of ‘receiving or losing an imprint, or transforming their program’ directly anticipates Malabou’s later move from neurological plasticity to docile workplace flexibility.
• DEEPTHINKING: This is the distinction the reader wants: plasticity couples form-reception to form-loss and program-change, whereas flexibility only bends to receive an imprint without transforming it.