TY - JOUR T1 - Impaired Bidirectional Synaptic Plasticity and Procedural Memory Formation in Striatum-Specific cAMP Response Element-Binding Protein-Deficient Mice JF - The Journal of Neuroscience JO - J. Neurosci. SP - 2808 LP - 2813 DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5406-05.2006 VL - 26 IS - 10 AU - Christopher Pittenger AU - Stefania Fasano AU - David Mazzocchi-Jones AU - Stephen B. Dunnett AU - Eric R. Kandel AU - Riccardo Brambilla Y1 - 2006/03/08 UR - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/26/10/2808.abstract N2 - The striatum has a well documented role in procedural learning and memory. However, the synaptic and molecular mechanisms of acquisition and storage of this form of memory remain poorly understood. We examined procedural memory and plasticity in transgenic mice reversibly expressing a dominant-negative cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) mutant in the dorsal striatum. In these transgenic mice, corticostriatal long-term potentiation and depression are abolished, indicating that CREB function is essential for bidirectional long-term synaptic plasticity in this structure. Importantly, CREB-deficient animals show reversible alterations in several forms of striatum-dependent memory, including footshock avoidance learning and “response” learning in the cross maze. These findings implicate transcriptional regulation by CREB family transcription factors in striatum-dependent information processing and provide the first clear correlation between procedural learning and memory and synaptic plasticity at the corticostriatal synapse. ER -