Impaired spatial working memory but spared spatial reference memory following functional loss of NMDA receptors in the dentate gyrus.

ABSTRACT: Novel spatially restricted genetic manipulations can be used to assess contributions made by synaptic plasticity to learning and memory, not just selectively within the hippocampus, but even within specific hippocampal subfields. Here we generated genetically modified mice (NR1(deltaDG) mice) exhibiting complete loss of the NR1 subunit of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor specifically in the granule cells of the dentate gyrus. There was no evidence of any reduction in NR1 subunit levels in any of the other hippocampal subfields, or elsewhere in the brain. NR1(deltaDG) mice displayed severely impaired long-term potentiation (LTP) in both medial and lateral perforant path inputs to the dentate gyrus, whereas LTP was unchanged in CA3-to-CA1 cell synapses in hippocampal slices. Behavioural ass

SUBMITTER: Niewoehner B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2777262 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature