The Journal of Neuroscience, July 15, 1999, 19(14):6183-6190
Differential Activation of Adenylyl Cyclases by Spatial and
Procedural Learning
Jean-Louis
Guillou,
Gregory M.
Rose, and
Dermot M. F.
Cooper
Department of Pharmacology, University of Colorado Health Sciences
Center, Denver, Colorado 80262
Adenylyl cyclases (ACs) are involved in a variety of advanced
CNS functions, including some types of learning and memory. At
least nine AC isoforms are expressed in the brain, which are divisible
into three broad classes based on the ability of
Ca2+ to modulate their activity. This study examined
the hypothesis that different learning tasks would differentially
activate ACs in selected brain regions. The ability of forskolin or
Ca2+ to enhance AC activity in the hippocampus,
parietal cortex, striatum, and cerebellum was examined after mice had
been trained in either a spatial or procedural learning task using a
Morris water maze. Sensitivity of ACs to forskolin was enhanced to a
greater degree in most brain regions after procedural learning, but
Ca2+-sensitive ACs in the hippocampus were more
sensitive to spatial learning. Because nonspecific behavioral elements,
such as stress or motor activity, were similar in both experimental
tasks, these results provide the first evidence that acquisition of
different kinds of learning is associated with selective changes in
particular AC species in a mammalian brain and support the idea that
different biochemical processing, involving particular isoforms of ACs, subserves different memory systems.
Key words:
adenylyl cyclase; calcium; spatial learning; procedural
learning; memory systems; water maze; mice
Copyright © 1999 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/99/19146183-08$05.00/0
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