Commissural potentiation of perforant path evoked responses in the dentate gyrus of the rat

1981 ◽  
Vol 59 (11) ◽  
pp. 1117-1121 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Y. Assaf ◽  
J. J. Miller

The effects of conditioning stimuli applied to the commissural pathway on the perforant path (PP) evoked EPSP and population spike response were examined in urethane anaesthetized rats. Whereas conditioning stimuli applied to the PP resulted in a short-term potentiation of both the EPSP and population spike evoked by a test pulse to the same pathway (homosynaptic potentiation), only the population spike was potentiated when the PP test pulse was preceded by a conditioning volley to the commissural afferent. This form of heterosynaptic potentiation, which occurs in the absence of any significant change in the synaptic currents generated by the perforant path, suggests that alterations in postsynaptic excitability may underly the process of short-term potentiation rather than an augmented transmitter release.

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 730-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor J. Bushell ◽  
Gilles Sansig ◽  
Valerie J. Collett ◽  
Herman van der Putten ◽  
Graham L. Collingridge

Eight subtypes of metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors have been identified of which two, mGlu5 and mGlu7, are highly expressed at synapses made between CA3 and CA1 pyramidal neurons in the hippocampus. This input, the Schaffer collateral-commissural pathway, displays robust long-term potentiation (LTP), a process believed to utilise molecular mechanisms that are key processes involved in the synaptic basis of learning and memory. To investigate the possible function in LTP of mGlu7 receptors, a subtype for which no specific antagonists exist, we generated a mouse lacking this receptor, by homologous recombination. We found that LTP could be induced in mGlu7-/- mice and that once the potentiation had reached a stable level there was no difference in the magnitude of LTP between mGlu7-/- mice and their littermate controls. However, the initial decremental phase of LTP, known as short-term potentiation (STP), was greatly attenuated in the mGlu7-/- mouse. In addition, there was less frequency facilitation during, and less post-tetanic potentiation following, a high frequency train in the mGlu7-/- mouse. These results show that the absence of mGlu7 receptors results in alterations in short-term synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus.


1988 ◽  
Vol 66 (7) ◽  
pp. 1010-1016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsugutaka Ito ◽  
Yoshiki Miura ◽  
Toshiaki Kadokawa

To elucidate an involvement of the cholinergic system in the long-term potentiation phenomenon, effects of physostigmine and scopolamine on population spike and its long-term potentiation in the dentate granule cell layer of anesthetized rats and in the CA1 pyramidal cell layer of rat hippocampal slices were examined. In anesthetized rats, physostigmine (0.01 mg/kg, i.v.) enhanced at a late phase the long-term potentiation induced by tetanic stimulation (15 Hz, 15 s, 7.5 times the threshold for population spike) of the perforant path, while scopolamine (1.0 mg/kg) suppressed it at an early phase. The two drugs did not affect the population spike itself. The time course of the long-term potentiation under the treatment of physostigmine was similar to that induced by stronger tetanic stimulation (10 times the threshold). In hippocampal slices, physostigmine (10−6 M) showed a tendency to enhance the long-term potentiation induced by tetanic stimulation (15 Hz, 15 s, 5 times the threshold) of the stratum radiatum, with an increase of the population spike itself. Scopolamine (10−5 M) markedly suppressed the long-term potentiation with a decrease of the population spike itself. From these results, it is suggested that cholinergic modification by physostigmine or scopolamine affects the long-term potentiation phenomenon in the hippocampus under the in vivo and in vitro conditions.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 312
Author(s):  
Naruki Hagiwara ◽  
Shoma Sekizaki ◽  
Yuji Kuwahara ◽  
Tetsuya Asai ◽  
Megumi Akai-Kasaya

Networks in the human brain are extremely complex and sophisticated. The abstract model of the human brain has been used in software development, specifically in artificial intelligence. Despite the remarkable outcomes achieved using artificial intelligence, the approach consumes a huge amount of computational resources. A possible solution to this issue is the development of processing circuits that physically resemble an artificial brain, which can offer low-energy loss and high-speed processing. This study demonstrated the synaptic functions of conductive polymer wires linking arbitrary electrodes in solution. By controlling the conductance of the wires, synaptic functions such as long-term potentiation and short-term plasticity were achieved, which are similar to the manner in which a synapse changes the strength of its connections. This novel organic artificial synapse can be used to construct information-processing circuits by wiring from scratch and learning efficiently in response to external stimuli.


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