Synaptic Plasticity Flashcards
Declarative(explicit) memory is the memory of …..
Fact and events
Or semantic and episodic memory
The brain area associated with this is the medial temporal lobe and diencephalon
Name the types of non-declarative (implicit) memory and the regions associated with them
Procedural (skills and habits) - striatum
Priming - neocortex
Simple classical conditioning - emotional responses - amygdala and skeletal musculature - cerebellum
Non-associative learning - reflex pathway
Hebb’s law
When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite cell B or repeatedly or consistently takes part in firing it, some growth or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A’s efficiency, as one of the cells firing B, is increased.
What did Lomo and Bliss do in 1973?
Stimulated the Perforant path fibers to the dentate area of the hippocampus and with extracellular micro-electrodes measured the response in the granule cells. This was the first recording of synaptic plasticity.
What did Manahan-Vaughan do and discover?
She used low frequency tetanus and stimulated cells for 15mins at 1Hz. Instead of potentiation she observed long-lasting reduction (LDP)
What is synaptic plasticity?
Activity-dependent change in synaptic strength
What occurred after patient HM’s surgery?
He lost his declarative memory. He was unable to retain for more than a minute information about people, places or objects.
What must occur for NMDA receptors to become active?
The postsynaptic cell must be depolarized so the Mg block becomes non-functional.
What happens if you buffer calcium ions entering the cell?
LTP is blocked
Name 2 possible ways to block NMDA receptors pharmacologically?
- Block binding of transmitter to receptor
2. Block inside of the channel, the ion flow.
LTP is NMDA receptor and calcium dependent. True or false?
True
What happens when you knock out the NR1 subunit of the NMDA receptor?
LTP does not work
CaMKII in the PSD is ideally positioned to detect local Ca2+ entry through the NMDA receptor. True or False?
True
What are the three forms of CaMKII activation?
- Activation without autophosphorylation
- Short-term persistent activation by autophosphorylation of threonine 286
- Long-term persistent activation when the rate of autophosphorylation exceeds the rate of dephosphorylation.
CaMKII can only be autophosphorylated? True or False?
False. It can also be phosphorylated in the presence of Ca2+