To determine the role of dendritic filopodia in the genesis of excitatory synaptic contacts and dendritic spines in hippocampal area CA1, serial section electron microscopy and three-dimensional analysis of 16 volumes of neuropil from nine male rat pups, aged postnatal day 1 (P1) through P12, were performed. The analysis revealed that numerous dendritic filopodia formed asymmetric synaptic cont...

Occlusal disharmony is induced by various conditions such as the loss of teeth and inappropriate vertical dimension of crowns, bridges, or dentures. Occlusal disharmony sometimes causes indefinite complaint syndromes, which may be associated with astrocytic hypertrophy and the reduction of numbers of neuronal somata and their dendritic spines in the hippocampus. Microglia monitors the condition...

1. Cellular properties were studied before and after bath application of the dihydropyridine L-type calcium channel antagonist nimodipine in aging and young rabbit hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cells in vitro. Various concentrations of nimodipine, ranging from 10 nM to 10 microM, were tested to investigate age- and concentration-dependent effects on cellular excitability. Drug studies were performe...

The ability of a synapse to be modulated both positively and negatively may be considered as a plausible model for the formation of learning and memory. The CA1 to perirhinal cortex projection is one of the multiple hippocampal-neocortical projections considered to be crucially involved in memory consolidation. We and others have previously demonstrated the ability of this projection to undergo...

Recent studies suggest that increases in intracellular CAMP increase evoked synaptic responses in area CA1 of the hippocampus. We recently reported that activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) in hippocampal slices potentiates CAMP responses to activation of other receptors that are positively coupled to adenylyl cyclase through Gs. It is possible that by enhancing CAMP response...

An emerging view, based on gene expression patterns, is that discrete cell types occupy different regions in the hippocampus. In this issue of Neuron, Cembrowski et al. (2016) challenge this concept by identifying gradients of gene expression that suggest a molecular continuum of excitatory neurons and provide insights for organizational motifs at hippocampal poles.