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Original Research ARTICLE

Differing presynaptic contributions to LTP and associative learning in behaving mice

División de Neurociencias, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Spain
The hippocampal CA3-CA1 synapse is an excellent experimental model for studying the interactions between short- and long-term plastic changes taking place following high-frequency stimulation (HFS) of Schaffer collaterals and during the acquisition and extinction of a classical eyeblink conditioning in behaving mice. Input/output curves and a full-range paired-pulse study enabled determining the optimal intensities and inter-stimulus intervals for evoking paired-pulse facilitation (PPF) or depression (PPD) at the CA3-CA1 synapse. Long-term potentiation (LTP) induced by HFS lasted 10 days. HFS-induced LTP evoked an initial depression of basal PPF. Recovery of PPF baseline values was a steady and progressive process lasting �20 days, i.e., longer than the total duration of the LTP. In a subsequent series of experiments, we checked whether PPF was affected similarly during activity-dependent synaptic changes. Animals were conditioned using a trace paradigm, with a tone as a conditioned stimulus (CS) and an electrical shock to the trigeminal nerve as an unconditioned stimulus (US). A pair of pulses (40 ms interval) was presented to the Schaffer collateral-commissural pathway to evoke fi eld EPSPs (fEPSPs) during the CS-US interval. Basal PPF decreased steadily across conditioning sessions (i.e., in the opposite direction to that during LTP), reaching a minimum value during the 10th conditioning session. Thus, LTP and classical eyeblink conditioning share some presynaptic mechanisms, but with an opposite evolution. Furthermore, PPF and PPD might play a homeostatic role during long-term plastic changes at the CA3-CA1 synapse.
Keywords:
hippocampus, mice, long-term potentiation, presynaptic mechanisms, CA3-CA1 synapse
Citation:
Madroñal N, Gruart A and Delgado-García JM (2009). Differing presynaptic contributions to LTP and associative learning in behaving mice. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 3:7. doi:10.3389/neuro.08.007.2009
Received:
10 March 2009;
 Paper pending published:
01 April 2009;
Accepted:
16 May 2009;
 Published online:
29 May 2009.

Edited by:

Serge Laroche, CNRS and Universite Paris Sud, France

Reviewed by:

Clive R. Bramham, University of Bergen, Norway
Henry Markram, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Copyright:
© 2009 Madroñal, Gruart and Delgado-García. This is an open-access article subject to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and the Frontiers Research Foundation, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
*Correspondence:
Dr. Agnès Gruart, División de Neurociencias, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Ctra. de Utrera, Km. 1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain. e-mail: agrumas@upo.es

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