Effects of A? exposure on long-term associative memory and its neuronal mechanisms in a defined neuronal network.

ABSTRACT: Amyloid beta (A?) induced neuronal death has been linked to memory loss, perhaps the most devastating symptom of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although A?-induced impairment of synaptic or intrinsic plasticity is known to occur before any cell death, the links between these neurophysiological changes and the loss of specific types of behavioral memory are not fully understood. Here we used a behaviorally and physiologically tractable animal model to investigate A?-induced memory loss and electrophysiological changes in the absence of neuronal death in a defined network underlying associative memory. We found similar behavioral but different neurophysiological effects for A? 25-35 and A? 1-42 in the feeding circuitry of the snail Lymnaea stagnalis. Importantly, we also established that both the behavioral and neuronal effects were dependent upon the animals having been classically conditioned prior to treatment, since A? application before training caused neither memory impairment nor underlying neuronal changes over a comparable period of time following treatment.

SUBMITTER: Ford L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4448550 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature