scholarly journals Metaplastic reinforcement of long-term potentiation in rat hippocampal area CA2 by cholinergic receptor activation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amrita Benoy ◽  
Mohammad Zaki Bin Ibrahim ◽  
Thomas Behnisch ◽  
Sreedharan Sajikumar

AbstractHippocampal CA2, an inconspicuously positioned area between the well-studied CA1 and CA3 subfields, has captured research interest in recent years due to its role in the formation of social memory. The effects of synaptic depression for subsequent long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic transmission at entorhinal cortical (EC)-CA2 and Schaffer collateral (SC)-CA2 synapses have not been previously explored. Here we show that cholinergic receptor activation with the non-selective cholinergic agonist carbachol (CCh) triggers a long-term synaptic depression (CCh-LTD) of field excitatory postsynaptic potentials at EC- and SC-CA2 synapses in the hippocampus of adult rats. The activation of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) is critical for the induction of an early phase (<100 min) of CCh-LTD, with a strong dependency upon M3 mAChR activation and a weaker one by M1 mAChRs. Interestingly, muscarinic M2 and nicotinic receptor activation are crucially involved in the late phase (>100 min) of CCh-LTD. Importantly, CCh priming lowers the threshold, in a protein synthesis-dependent manner, for the late maintenance of LTP that can be subsequently induced by high-frequency electrical stimulation at EC- or SC-CA2 pathways. The results demonstrate that CA2 synaptic learning rules are modified in a metaplastic manner, wherein synaptic modifications triggered by cholinergic stimulation can dictate the outcome of future plasticity events. Moreover, the observed enabling of late LTP at EC inputs to CA2 following the priming stimulus co-exists with concurrent sustained CCh-LTD at SC-CA2 and is dynamically scaled by modulation of SC-CA2 synaptic transmission.Significance StatementThe release of the neuromodulator acetylcholine is critically involved in processes of hippocampus-dependent memory formation. Cholinergic afferents originating in the medial septum and diagonal bands of Broca terminating in the hippocampal area CA2 might play an important role in the modulation of area-specific synaptic plasticity. Our findings demonstrate that cholinergic receptor activation induces a long-term depression of synaptic transmission at entorhinal cortical- and Schaffer collateral-CA2 synapses. This cholinergic activation-mediated long-term depression displays a bidirectional metaplastic switch to long-term potentiation on a future timescale. This suggests that such bidirectional synaptic modifications triggered by the dynamic modulation of tonic cholinergic receptor activation may support the formation of CA2-dependent memories given the increased hippocampal cholinergic tone during active wakefulness observed in exploratory behaviour.

Physiology ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 256-260
Author(s):  
D Debanne ◽  
SM Thompson

Two opposing types of plasticity at excitatory synapses in the hippocampus, long-term potentiation and depression, require N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor activation and Ca2+ influx for their induction.The direction of the change in synaptic strength is determined by a balance between phosphorylation and dephosphorylation, as regulated by protein kinases and phosphatases that are activated selectively by different levels of intracellular Ca2+.


2006 ◽  
Vol 96 (6) ◽  
pp. 3114-3121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eve McCutchen ◽  
Cary L. Scheiderer ◽  
Lynn E. Dobrunz ◽  
Lori L. McMahon

Our laboratory recently characterized a form of long-term depression (LTD) at CA3–CA1 synapses mediated by M1 muscarinic receptors (mAChRs), termed muscarinic LTD (mLTD). mLTD is both activity and NMDAR dependent, characteristics shared by forms of synaptic plasticity thought to be relevant to learning and memory, including long-term potentiation (LTP) induced by high-frequency stimulation (HFS-LTP) and long-term depression induced by low-frequency stimulation (LFS-LTD). However, it remains unclear whether mLTD can occur sequentially with these electrically induced forms of hippocampal plasticity or whether mLTD might interact with them. The first goal of this study was to examine the interplay of mLTD and HFS-LTP. We report that mLTD expression does not alter subsequent induction of HFS-LTP and, further, at synapses expressing HFS-LTP, mLTD can mediate a novel form of depotentiation. The second goal was to determine whether mLTD would alter LFS-LTD induction and/or expression. Although we show that mLTD is occluded by saturation of LFS-LTD, suggesting mechanistic similarity between these two plasticities, saturation of mLTD does not occlude LFS-LTD. Surprisingly, however, the LFS-LTD that follows cholinergic receptor activation is NMDAR independent, indicating that application of muscarinic agonist induces a change in the induction mechanism required for LFS-LTD. These data demonstrate that mLTD can coexist with electrically induced forms of synaptic plasticity and support the hypothesis that mLTD is one of the mechanisms by which the cholinergic system modulates hippocampal function.


1998 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 452-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Klann

Klann, Eric. Cell-permeable scavengers of superoxide prevent long-term potentiation in hippocampal area CA1. J. Neurophysiol. 80: 452–457, 1998. Long-term potentiation (LTP) in hippocampal area CA1 is generally dependent on N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor activation. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), including superoxide, are produced in response to NMDA receptor activation in a number of brain regions, including the hipppocampus. In this study, two cell-permeable manganese porphyrin compounds that mimic superoxide dismutase (SOD) were used to determine whether production of superoxide is required for the induction of LTP in area CA1 of rat hippocampal slices. Incubation of hippocampal slices with either Mn(III) tetrakis (4-benzoic acid) porphyrin (MnTBAP) or Mn(III) tetrakis (1-methyl-4-pyridyl) porphyrin (MnTMPyP) prevented the induction of LTP. Incubation of slices with either light-inactivated MnTBAP or light-inactivated MnTMPyP had no effect on induction of LTP. Neither MnTBAP nor MnTMPyP was able to reverse preestablished LTP. These observations suggest that production of superoxide occurs in response to LTP-inducing stimulation and that superoxide is necessary for the induction of LTP.


2014 ◽  
Vol 112 (11) ◽  
pp. 3012-3022 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Félix-Oliveira ◽  
R. B. Dias ◽  
M. Colino-Oliveira ◽  
D. M. Rombo ◽  
A. M. Sebastião

Different forms of plasticity occur concomitantly in the nervous system. Whereas homeostatic plasticity monitors and maintains neuronal activity within a functional range, Hebbian changes such as long-term potentiation (LTP) modify the relative strength of specific synapses after discrete changes in activity and are thought to provide the cellular basis for learning and memory. Here, we assessed whether homeostatic plasticity could influence subsequent LTP in acute hippocampal slices that had been briefly deprived of activity by blocking action potential generation and N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor activation for 3 h. Activity deprivation enhanced the frequency and the amplitude of spontaneous miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents and enhanced basal synaptic transmission in the absence of significant changes in intrinsic excitability. Changes in the threshold for Hebbian plasticity were evaluated by inducing LTP with stimulation protocols of increasing strength. We found that activity-deprived slices consistently showed higher LTP magnitude compared with control conditions even when using subthreshold theta-burst stimulation. Enhanced LTP in activity-deprived slices was also observed when picrotoxin was used to prevent the modulation of GABAergic transmission. Finally, we observed that consecutive LTP inductions attained a higher magnitude of facilitation in activity-deprived slices, suggesting that the homeostatic plasticity mechanisms triggered by a brief period of neuronal silencing can both lower the threshold and raise the ceiling for Hebbian modifications. We conclude that even brief periods of altered activity are able to shape subsequent synaptic transmission and Hebbian plasticity in fully developed hippocampal circuits.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Compans ◽  
Magalie Martineau ◽  
Remco V. Klaassen ◽  
Thomas M. Bartol ◽  
Corey Butler ◽  
...  

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) and Long-Term Depression (LTD) of excitatory synaptic transmission are considered as cellular basis of learning and memory. These two forms of synaptic plasticity have been mainly attributed to global changes in the number of synaptic AMPA-type glutamate receptor (AMPAR) through a regulation of the diffusion/trapping balance at the PSD, exocytosis and endocytosis. While the precise molecular mechanisms at the base of LTP have been intensively investigated, the ones involved in LTD remains elusive. Here we combined super-resolution imaging technique, electrophysiology and modeling to describe the various modifications of AMPAR nanoscale organization and their effect on synaptic transmission in response to two different LTD protocols, based on the activation of either NMDA receptors or P2X receptors. While both type of LTD are associated with a decrease in synaptic AMPAR clustering, only NMDAR-dependent LTD is associated with a reorganization of PSD-95 at the nanoscale. This change increases the pool of diffusive AMPAR improving synaptic short-term facilitation through a post-synaptic mechanism. These results demonstrate that specific dynamic reorganization of synapses at the nanoscale during specific LTD paradigm allows to improve the responsiveness of depressed synapses.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document