title: Functional transitions between epileptiform-like activity and associative memory in hippocampal region CA3.
abstract: Clinical and experimental observations indicate that the hippocampus is critical in the formation of declarative memories. Interestingly, electrophysiological studies have demonstrated that the region also has a particularly low seizure threshold, where globally synchronous synaptic activity can occur. By using a detailed biophysical model of area CA3, it is shown how septal cholinergic modulation, through three distinct mechanisms, can interact with intrinsic and synaptic conductances to influence population behavior. A dissection of each mechanism demonstrates a variety of population firing activity ranging from fully synchronized behavior to a mixture of repetitive bursting and oscillations in reduced subsets of neurons, ideal for forming accurate associations during a learning and recall task.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: G V
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Wallenstein
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Hasselmo
mesh_terms: D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000494:pharmacology; D001244:Association; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004594:Electrophysiology; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D007395:Interneurons / Q000502:physiology; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D008959:Models, Neurological; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D000109:Acetylcholine