The basolateral amygdala (BLA) has a fundamental role in affective processing. In vivo studies have revealed rhythmic population activity of a similar type to that seen in the hippocampus and cortical areas during learning tasks. The amygdala contains densely interconnected networks of inhibitory interneurons similar to those responsible for fast network activity generation in the hippocampus a...

The crinoid echinoderm Antedon mediterranea autotomises its arms at specialised skeletal joints known as syzygies that occur at regular intervals along the length of each arm. Detachment is achieved through the nervously mediated destabilisation of ligament fibres at a particular syzygy. The aim of this investigation was to identify neurotransmitters that are involved in the autotomy response. ...

Patch-clamp recording techniques were used to study the properties of amino acid-activated channels in cultured "organotypic" slices from rat cerebellum and hippocampus. Hippocampal pyramidal cells responded to the three main glutamatergic agonists, N-methyl-D-aspartate (N-Me-D-Asp), quisqualate, and kainate, whereas Purkinje cells responded only to quisqualate and kainate. Analysis of single-c...

Following the molecular cloning in the early 1990s of the metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGlu1-8), research that focused on the physiology, pharmacology and function of these receptors revealed their potential role in CNS disorders. Numerous psychiatric and neurological dis-orders are indeed linked to changes in excitatory processes, in which glutamate plays a key role. In contrast to ligand...

Kainate receptors (KA-Rs) are members of the glutamate-gated family of ionotropic receptors, which also includes N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) and alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionate (AMPA) receptors. KA-Rs are important modulators of interneuron excitability in the CA1 region of the hippocampus. Activation of these receptors enhances interneuron firing, which robustly increases ...

The excitatory amino acid receptor (EAAR) types involved in the generation of light-evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) were examined in X-type retinal ganglion cells. Using isolated and sliced preparations of cat and ferret retina, the light-evoked EPSCs of X cells were isolated by adding picrotoxin and strychnine to the bath to remove synaptic inhibition. N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMD...

We have used the synapses that isolated hippocampal cells in culture form onto themselves (autapses) to determine if some synapses lack functional AMPA receptors (AMPARs). A comparison of the synaptic variability of the AMPAR- and NMDAR-mediated evoked responses, as well as of miniature synaptic responses, indicates that a population of events exists that only contains an NMDAR component. Spill...

The binding of (RS)-alpha-[3H]amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid ([3H]AMPA), a selective ligand for non-N-methyl-D-aspartate excitatory amino acid receptors, was investigated in rat brain using an autoradiographic receptor binding technique. [3H]AMPA binding sites were widely distributed throughout the rat central nervous system, and the rank order of potency of displacers of [3...

Postsynaptic differentiation during glutamatergic synapse formation is poorly understood. Using a novel biophysical approach, we have investigated the distribution and density of functional glutamate receptors and characterized their clustering during synaptogenesis in cultured hippocampal neurons. We found that functional alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolpropionate (AMPA) and N-methyl-...

The ionotropic N-methyl-D-aspartate and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors of the glutamatergic neurotransmitter system are of fundamental importance to healthy brain function. Neuroimaging studies in humans have previously been conducted using various drugs that interact with N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptors, but no such studies have investigated AMPA...