title: Capture of the late phase of long-term potentiation within and across the apical and basilar dendritic compartments of CA1 pyramidal neurons: synaptic tagging is compartment restricted.
abstract: Studies in the rodent hippocampus have demonstrated that when the late phase of long-term potentiation (L-LTP) is induced in a set of synapses by suprathreshold stimulation, L-LTP can also be expressed by other synapses receiving subthreshold stimulation, a phenomenon usually referred as "capture of L-LTP." Because the pyramidal neurons in the mammalian hippocampus have both apical and basal dendrites, we have now investigated whether capture of L-LTP, previously described only within the apical dendritic compartment, can also take place within the basilar dendritic compartment and, if so, whether capture can be accomplished from one dendritic compartment to the other. We found that capture of L-LTP can also occur within the basilar dendritic compartment and that the tagging signal that enables capture appears to be the same in both dendritic compartments. However, capture across compartments, between the apical and basilar dendrites, follows different rules and requires a stronger triggering stimulation than capture within a compartment. These results suggest that the tag appears specific to a compartment either apical or basilar and that an additional mechanism may be required to capture across compartments.
authors.affiliation: Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Juan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Alarcon
authors.forename: Angel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barco
authors.forename: Eric R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Kandel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003712:Dendrites / Q000502:physiology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*