Author:
Ashby Donovan M,Seamans Jeremy K,Wang Yu Tian
Abstract
AbstractSynaptic plasticity mechanisms may help shape hippocampal place field representations of novel environments, yet direct evidence for how this occurs is lacking. Using multi-channel recordings in freely moving rats, we demonstrate that novelty exploration results in widespread de novo long-term depression (LTD) at hippocampal CA1 synapses in a pathway-specific manner, while blockade of LTD expression impairs the maintenance of newly formed place fields. This study therefore reveals an unrecognized role for LTD in the formation and maintenance of hippocampal place fields in novel environments.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory