In vitro systems as simulations of in vivo conditions: the study of cognition and synaptic plasticity in neurotoxicology.
Neuroscientists have been engaged for decades in the search for brain regions and brain processes that underlie learning and memory. The effects of regional brain stimulation and ablation on behavior have been documented and inferences made on the impact of these manipulations on the psychological constructs of "learning" and "memory". Discovery of an electrophysiological property, long-term potentiation (LTP), greatly expanded the ability to probe cellular aspects of how memories are represented in the brain. The study of LTP serves as an excellent example of how in vivo phenomena can be taken to more simplified in vitro test systems to directly address cellular and biochemical mechanisms of information storage in brain.
Gilbert
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Neurotoxicology Division, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27711, USA. gilbert.mary@epa.gov
D000818:Animals; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D005239:Fear; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception; D009435:Synaptic Transmission