The present study was aimed to investigate the role and relationship between N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor and neuropeptide Y (NPY) in depression induced by chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS). CUMS-induced depression model was established in Sprague-Dawley rats. Intrahippocampal injections of NMDA, non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 and NPY-Y1 receptor antagonist G...

Synaptic homeostasis, induced by chronic changes in neuronal activity, is well studied in cultured neurons, but not in more physiological networks where distinct synaptic circuits are preserved. We characterized inactivity-induced adaptations at three sets of excitatory synapses in tetrodotoxin-treated organotypic hippocampal cultures. The adaptation to inactivity was strikingly synapse specifi...

Computational theories have suggested different functions for the hippocampal subfields (e.g., CA1 and CA3) in memory. However, it has been difficult to find dissociations relevant to these hypothesized functions in investigations of the hippocampal correlates of space ("place fields") in freely behaving animals. The current study demonstrates a double dissociation between the shifts in the cen...

Elucidating the functional properties of the dentate gyrus (DG), CA3, and CA1 areas is critical for understanding the role of the dorsal hippocampus in contextual fear memory processing. In order to specifically disrupt various hippocampal inputs, we used region-specific infusions of DCG-IV, the metabotropic glutamate receptor agonist, which selectively disrupts entorhinal outputs as well as mo...

PURPOSE One cellular consequence of status epilepticus is apoptosis in the hippocampal CA3 subfield. We evaluated the hypothesis that the repertoire of cellular events that underlie such elicited cell death entails mitochondrial dysfunction induced by an excessive production of nitric oxide synthase II (NOS II)-derived NO, increased superoxide anion (O(2)(-)) production, and peroxynitrite forma...

Mice lacking the voltage-gated potassium channel alpha subunit, K(V)1.1, display frequent spontaneous seizures throughout adult life. In hippocampal slices from homozygous K(V)1.1 null animals, intrinsic passive properties of CA3 pyramidal cells are normal. However, antidromic action potentials are recruited at lower thresholds in K(V)1.1 null slices. Furthermore, in a subset of slices, mossy f...

Aging and age-related diseases have negative impact on the hippocampus (HC), which is crucial for such age-sensitive functions as memory formation, maintenance, and retrieval. We examined age differences in hippocampal subfield volumes in 10 younger and 19 older adults, and association of those volumes with memory performance in the older participants. We manually measured volumes of HC regions...

GABAergic inhibition, which is instrumental in the generation of hippocampal gamma oscillations, undergoes significant changes during development. However, the development of hippocampal gamma oscillations remains largely unknown. Here, we explored the developmental features of kainate-induced oscillations (KA-Os) in CA3 region of rat hippocampal slices. Up to postnatal day P5, the bath applica...

In adult rats, intraperitoneal administration of kainic acid, a glutamic acid analog and potent neurotoxin, induces persistent seizure activity that results in electrographic alterations and neuropathology that closely resemble human temporal lobe epilepsy. We used in situ hybridization to identify regions of altered glutamate and GABAA receptor gene expression following kainate-induced status ...

To investigate whether or not aging of nonhuman primates is accompanied by a region-specific neuron loss in the hippocampal formation, we used the optical fractionator technique to obtain stereological estimates of unilateral neuron numbers of the hippocampi of eight young (0-4 years) and five aged (18-31 years) male rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). Our results show a preservation of neurons (m...