X-Message-Number: 12678
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 18:31:42 -0400
From: Jan Coetzee <>
Subject: hippocampal participation

              Reversible neural
              inactivation reveals
              hippocampal participation
              in several memory
              processes


                  G. Riedel1, 2, 6, J. Micheau3, 6,
October 1999 Volume 2 Number 10 pp 898 - 905 Nature Neuroscience


              Studies of patients and animals with
              brain lesions have implicated the
              hippocampal formation in spatial,
              declarative/relational and episodic
              types of memory. These and other
              types of memory consist of a series of
              interdependent but potentially
              dissociable memory
              processes encoding, storage,
              consolidation and retrieval. To identify
              whether hippocampal activity
              contributes to these processes
              independently, we used a novel method
              of inactivating synaptic transmission
              using a water-soluble antagonist of
              AMPA/kainate glutamate receptors.
              Once calibrated using
              electrophysiological and
              two-deoxyglucose techniques in vivo,
              drug or vehicle was infused chronically
              or acutely into the dorsal hippocampus
              of rats at appropriate times during or
              after training in a water maze. Our
              findings indicate that hippocampal
              neural activity is necessary for both
              encoding and retrieval of spatial
              memory and for either trace
              consolidation or long-term storage.

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12678