title: Plasticity of hippocampal and motor cortical pyramidal neurons induced by self-stimulation experience.
abstract: The self-stimulation (SS) induced neuronal plasticity was observed in CA3 hippocampal and layer V motor cortical pyramidal neurons. SS experience was allowed daily for a total of 1 hour for 10 days through four bipolar electrodes implanted bilaterally in lateral hypothalamus (LH) and substantia nigra-ventral tegmental area (SN-VTA) in adult male Wistar rats. Examination of pyramidal neurons stained by rapid Golgi technique was made in a total of 1,600 neurons out of 80 rats consisting of 4 groups. The dendritic intersections were quantified upto 200 and 120 microns radial distances in apical and basal dendrites respectively. The CA3 hippocampal and layer V motor cortical pyramidal neurons of SS group revealed significant increase (P < 0.001, two-way ANOVA) in dendritic intersections in both apical and basal dendrites, compared to normal control (NC), sham control (SH) and experimenter-administered (EA) group of animals. These results demonstrate that SS experience promotes increase in dendritic length in hippocampal and motor cortical pyramidal neurons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurophysiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore.
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Desiraju
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Meti
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Raju
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003712:Dendrites / Q000502:physiology; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D007026:Hypothalamic Area, Lateral / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012653:Self Stimulation / Q000502:physiology*; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000502:physiology; D017557:Ventral Tegmental Area / Q000502:physiology