title: The role of the GluR-A (GluR1) AMPA receptor subunit in learning and memory.
abstract: It is widely believed that synaptic plasticity may provide the neural mechanism that underlies certain kinds of learning and memory in the mammalian brain. The expression of long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampus, an experimental model of synaptic plasticity, requires the GluR-A subunit of the AMPA subtype of glutamate receptor. Genetically modified mice lacking the GluR-A subunit show normal acquisition of the standard, fixed-location, hidden-platform watermaze task, a spatial reference memory task that requires the hippocampus. In contrast, these mice are dramatically impaired on hippocampus-dependent, spatial working memory tasks, in which the spatial response of the animal is dependent on information in short-term memory. Taken together, these results argue for two distinct and independent spatial information processing mechanisms: (i) a GluR-A-independent associative learning mechanism through which a particular spatial response is gradually or incrementally strengthened, and which presumably underlies the acquisition of the classic watermaze paradigm and (ii) a GluR-A-dependent, non-associative, short-term memory trace which determines performance on spatial working memory tasks. These results are discussed in terms of Wagner's SOP model (1981).
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3UD, UK. david.sanderson@psy.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Sanderson
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Good
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Seeburg
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sprengel
authors.forename: J N P
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Rawlins
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Bannerman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D018091:Receptors, AMPA / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D018091:Receptors, AMPA