Cerebellar long-term potentiation under suppressed... : NeuroReport (original) (raw)
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Cerebellar long-term potentiation under suppressed postsynaptic Ca2+ activity
Laboratory for Neural Networks, Frontier Research Program, Riken, Wako, Saitama 351–01, Japan
Abstract
To study the roles of postsynaptic Ca2+ activity in cerebellar synaptic plasticity, we used a patch-recording technique in Purkinje cell dendrites. While the combination of parallel fibre stimulation and 8-bromo cyclic guanosine monophosphate (Br-cGMP) application produced long-term depression (LTD) of the parallel fibre/Purkinje cell transmission, the same stimuli evoked long-term potentiation (LTP) during postsynaptic injection of Ethyl-eneglycol-bis-(β-amino-ethylether)-N, N, N′, N′-tetra-acetate (EGTA). Furthermore, in the presence of α-aminobutyric acid (GABA), parallel fibre stimulation plus Br-cGMP produced LTP of extracellular K+ increases following parallel fibre stimulation. These results suggest that postsynaptic Ca2+ activity in Purkinje cells is negatively correlated to the direction of plastic changes and that the Ca2+ changes and cGMP play distinct roles in cerebellar synaptic plasticity.
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