title: NMDA and AMPA receptors: old channels, new tricks.
abstract: Learning and memory depend on persistent changes in synaptic strength that require neuronal gene expression. An unresolved question concerns the mechanisms by which activity at synapses is transduced into a nuclear transcriptional response. In the prevailing view, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)- and alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA)-type glutamate receptors have distinct roles in controlling synaptic strength: AMPA receptors effect short-term changes in synaptic strength, whereas NMDA receptors regulate genes that are required for the long-term maintenance of these changes. Here, we review recent data on the roles of these two types of receptor in activity-dependent gene expression. We discuss evidence that signals from NMDA receptors and AMPA receptors are integrated to specify transcriptional responses for particular plasticity related genes.
authors.affiliation: Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, 1650 Owens Street, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
authors.forename: Vikram R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Finkbeiner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D018091:Receptors, AMPA / Q000378:metabolism*; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D018091:Receptors, AMPA; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; D002118:Calcium