title: Synaptic tagging and capture in the living rat.
abstract: In isolated hippocampal slices, decaying long-term potentiation can be stabilized and converted to late long-term potentiation lasting many hours, by prior or subsequent strong high-frequency tetanization of an independent input to a common population of neurons-a phenomenon known as 'synaptic tagging and capture'. Here we show that the same phenomenon occurs in the intact rat. Late long-term potentiation can be induced in CA1 during the inhibition of protein synthesis if an independent input is strongly tetanized beforehand. Conversely, declining early long-term potentiation induced by weak tetanization can be converted into lasting late long-term potentiation by subsequent strong tetanization of a separate input. These findings indicate that synaptic tagging and capture is not limited to in vitro preparations; the past and future activity of neurons has a critical role in determining the persistence of synaptic changes in the living animal, thus providing a bridge between cellular studies of protein synthesis-dependent synaptic potentiation and behavioural studies of memory persistence.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems (CCNS), University of Edinburgh, 1 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK.
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Shires
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Da Silva
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Hawthorne
authors.forename: R G M
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000841:Anisomycin / Q000494:pharmacology; D001552:Benzazepines / Q000494:pharmacology; D056547:CA1 Region, Hippocampal / Q000502:physiology; D056654:CA3 Region, Hippocampal / Q000502:physiology; D004298:Dopamine / Q000502:physiology; D018492:Dopamine Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D011500:Protein Synthesis Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*; D055366:Synaptic Potentials / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D001552:Benzazepines; D018492:Dopamine Antagonists; D011500:Protein Synthesis Inhibitors; C534628:SCH 23390; D000841:Anisomycin; D004298:Dopamine