title: Ventral striatal plasticity and spatial memory.
abstract: Spatial memory formation is a dynamic process requiring a series of cellular and molecular steps, such as gene expression and protein translation, leading to morphological changes that have been envisaged as the structural bases for the engram. Despite the role suggested for medial temporal lobe plasticity in spatial memory, recent behavioral observations implicate specific components of the striatal complex in spatial information processing. However, the potential occurrence of neural plasticity within this structure after spatial learning has never been investigated. In this study we demonstrate that blockade of cAMP response element binding protein-induced transcription or inhibition of protein synthesis or extracellular proteolytic activity in the ventral striatum impairs long-term spatial memory. These findings demonstrate that, in the ventral striatum, similarly to what happens in the hippocampus, several key molecular events crucial for the expression of neural plasticity are required in the early stages of spatial memory formation.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Center for Research in Neurobiology D Bovet, Università di Roma La Sapienza, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ferretti
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roullet
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sargolini
authors.forename: Arianna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rinaldi
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Perri
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Del Fabbro
authors.forename: Vivian J A
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Costantini
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Annese
authors.forename: Gianluigi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scesa
authors.forename: Maria Egle
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: De Stefano
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oliverio
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mele
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000502:physiology*; D017362:Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D015151:Immunoblotting; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D016376:Oligonucleotides, Antisense / Q000235:genetics; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D017362:Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein; D016376:Oligonucleotides, Antisense