The involvement of NMDA receptors and voltage-dependent calcium channels in augmentation of long-term potentiation (LTP) was investigated at the Schaffer collateral CA1 pyramidal cell synapses in hippocampal slices of morphine dependent rats, using primed-burst tetanic simulation. The amplitude of the population spike and its delay were measured as indices of increase in postsynaptic excitabi...

Sleep is required for, and sleep loss impairs, normal hippocampal synaptic N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor function and expression, hippocampal NMDA receptor-dependent synaptic plasticity, and hippocampal-dependent memory function. Although sleep is essential, the signals linking sleep to hippocampal function are not known. One potential signal is growth hormone. Growth hormone i...

objective: low-frequency stimulation (lfs) exerts suppressive effects in kindled animals. it is believed that overstimulated glutamatergic and decreased gabaergic transmission have long been associated with seizure activity. in this study, we investigated the effect of electrical lfs on different parameters of spontaneous excitatory and inhibitory post-synaptic currents (sepscs and sipscs) in h...

Many neural circuits process information in multiple distinct modes. For example, the hippocampus is involved in memory encoding, retrieval, and consolidation processes. These different mnemonic computations require processing of differing balances of current sensory input and previously stored associations. Here we explore patterns of activity in hippocampal output area CA1 associated with dif...

Virus-mediated gene transfer into neurons is a powerful tool for the analysis of neuronal structure and function. Recombinant sindbis virus has been previously used to study protein function in hippocampal neuron cultures as well as in hippocampal organotypic slice cultures. Nevertheless, some concern still exists about the physiological relevance of these cultured preparations. Acute hippocamp...

In pyramidal neurons such as hippocampal area CA1 and basolateral amygdala, a slow afterhyperpolarization (sAHP) follows a burst of action potentials, which is a powerful regulator of neuronal excitability. The sAHP amplitude increases with aging and may underlie age related memory decline. The sAHP is due to a Ca(2+)-dependent, voltage-independent K(+) conductance, the molecular identity of wh...

To evaluate the role in synaptic plasticity of ryanodine receptor type 3 (RyR3), which is normally enriched in hippocampal area CA1, we generated RyR3-deficient mice. Mutant mice exhibited facilitated CA1 long-term potentiation (LTP) induced by short tetanus (100 Hz, 100 ms) stimulation. Unlike LTP in wild-type mice, this LTP was not blocked bythe NMDA receptor antagonist D-AP5 but was partiall...

Calorie restriction (CR) enhances longevity and mitigates aging phenotypes in numerous species. Physiological responses to CR are cell-type specific and variable throughout the lifespan. However, the mosaic of molecular changes responsible for CR benefits remains unclear, particularly in brain regions susceptible to deterioration during aging. We examined the influence of long-term CR on the CA...

Spatial and temporal features of synaptic inputs engage integration mechanisms on multiple scales, including presynaptic release sites, postsynaptic dendrites, and networks of inhibitory interneurons. Here we investigate how these mechanisms cooperate to filter synaptic input in hippocampal area CA1. Dendritic recordings from CA1 pyramidal neurons reveal that proximal inputs from CA3 as well as...