RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Long-term increases in dentate granule cell responsivity accompany operant conditioning
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 3081
OP 3087
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.07-10-03081.1987
VO 7
IS 10
A1 RW Skelton
A1 AS Scarth
A1 DM Wilkie
A1 JJ Miller
A1 AG Phillips
YR 1987
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/7/10/3081.abstract
AB The efficacy of synaptic transmission from the perforant path (PP) to the granule cells in the dentate gyrus (DG) of freely moving rats was monitored electrophysiologically over the course of training in an appetitively motivated, discriminated operant paradigm. Every day, 22 hr after behavioral sessions, evoked potentials were recorded from the DG following stimulation of the PP over range of current intensities and the amplitudes of the population spikes were measured. Behavioral conditions involved training in an operant conditioning paradigm or a session of free-feeding. Significant increases in population spike amplitudes were observed over the 8 d of training, but not over the 8 d of free-feeding. This training-induced increase in granule cell responsivity persisted for at least 10 d following the cessation of behavioral trials and was in many ways comparable to long-term potentiation (LTP), subsequently observed in these same rats 24 hr after tetanic stimulation. These data confirm and extend previous reports of synaptic enhancements following conditioning and suggest that such increases in synaptic efficacy may encode some aspect of learning.