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The Journal of Neuroscience, December 1, 1999, 19(23):10512-10519
L-Type Voltage-Gated Calcium Channels Mediate NMDA-Independent
Associative Long-Term Potentiation at Thalamic Input Synapses to the
Amygdala
Marc G.
Weisskopf,
Elizabeth P.
Bauer, and
Joseph E.
LeDoux
W. M. Keck Laboratory of Neurobiology, Center for Neural Science,
New York University, New York, New York 10003
Long-term potentiation (LTP) in the amygdala is a leading candidate
mechanism to explain fear conditioning, a prominent model of emotional
memory. LTP occurs in the pathway from the auditory thalamus to the
lateral amygdala, and during fear conditioning LTP-like changes
occur in the synapses of this pathway. Nevertheless, LTP has not been
investigated in the thalamoamygdala pathway using in
vitro recordings; hence little is known about the underlying mechanisms. We therefore examined thalamoamygdala LTP in
vitro using visualized whole-cell patch recording. LTP at these
synapses was dependent on postsynaptic calcium entry, similar to
synaptic plasticity in other regions of the brain. However, unlike many forms of synaptic plasticity, thalamoamygdala LTP was independent of
NMDA receptors, despite their presence at these synapses, and instead was dependent on L-type voltage-gated calcium channels. This was true when LTP was induced by pairing presynaptic activity with
either action potentials or constant depolarization in the postsynaptic
cell. In addition, the LTP was associative, in that it required
concurrent pre- and postsynaptic activity, and it was synapse specific.
Thus, although this LTP is different from that described at other
synapses in the brain, it is nonetheless well suited to mediate
classical fear conditioning.
Key words:
electrophysiology; in vitro; amygdala; LTP; calcium channels; fear; synapse
Copyright © 1999 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/99/192310512-08$05.00/0
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