title: Arc regulates experience-dependent persistent firing patterns in frontal cortex.
abstract: The brain encodes information about past experience in specific populations of neurons that communicate with one another by firing action potentials. Studies of experience-dependent neural plasticity have largely focused on individual synaptic changes in response to neuronal input. Indicative of the neuronal output transmitted to downstream neurons, persistent firing patterns are affected by prior experience in selective neuronal populations. However, little is known about the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which experience-related persistent firing patterns are regulated in specific neuronal populations. Using frontal cortical slices prepared from transgenic mice carrying a fluorescent reporter of Arc gene expression, this study investigates how behavioral experience and the activity-regulated Arc gene affect patterns of neuronal firing. We found that motor training increases Arc expression in subsets of excitatory neurons. Those neurons exhibit persistent firing in contrast to Arc-negative neurons from the same mice or neurons from the untrained mice. Furthermore, in mice carrying genetic deletion of Arc, the frontal cortical circuitry is still in place to initiate experience-dependent gene expression, but the level of persistent firing thereafter is diminished. Finally, our results showed that the emergence of persistent activity is associated with Arc-dependent changes in the function of NMDA-type glutamate receptors, rather than changes in AMPA-type receptors or membrane excitability. Our findings therefore reveal an Arc-dependent molecular pathway by which gene-experience interaction regulates the emergence of persistent firing patterns in specific neuronal populations.
authors.affiliation: Unit on Neural Circuits and Adaptive Behaviors, Genes Cognition and Psychosis Program, and Laboratory of Molecular Pathophysiology and Experimental Therapeutics, Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Vania
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Yizhou
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Husseini K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Manji
authors.forename: Kuan Hong
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001640:Bicuculline / Q000494:pharmacology; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D055724:Electrophysiological Phenomena; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D018756:GABA Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D018091:Receptors, AMPA / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; D018756:GABA Antagonists; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D018091:Receptors, AMPA; C092069:activity regulated cytoskeletal-associated protein; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D001640:Bicuculline
keywords: Arc/Arg3.1; NMDA receptor; experience dependent; frontal cortex; persistent activity