title: Abolition of long-term stability of new hippocampal place cell maps by NMDA receptor blockade.
abstract: Hippocampal pyramidal cells are called place cells because each cell tends to fire only when the animal is in a particular part of the environment-the cell's firing field. Acute pharmacological blockade of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors was used to investigate how NMDA-based synaptic plasticity participates in the formation and maintenance of the firing fields. The results suggest that the formation and short-term stability of firing fields in a new environment involve plasticity that is independent of NMDA receptor activation. By contrast, the long-term stabilization of newly established firing fields required normal NMDA receptor function and, therefore, may be related to other NMDA-dependent processes such as long-term potentiation and spatial learning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, SUNY Health Science Center Brooklyn, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kentros
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hargreaves
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Hawkins
authors.forename: E R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Kandel
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shapiro
authors.forename: R V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Muller
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D010879:Piperazines / Q000494:pharmacology; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists; D010879:Piperazines; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; C050592:3-(2-carboxypiperazin-4-yl)propyl-1-phosphonic acid