Hippocampal Synaptic Expansion Induced by Spatial Experience in Rats Correlates with Improved Information Processing in the Hippocampus.

ABSTRACT: Spatial water maze (WM) overtraining induces hippocampal mossy fiber (MF) expansion, and it has been suggested that spatial pattern separation depends on the MF pathway. We hypothesized that WM experience inducing MF expansion in rats would improve spatial pattern separation in the hippocampal network. We first tested this by using the the delayed non-matching to place task (DNMP), in animals that had been previously trained on the water maze (WM) and found that these animals, as well as animals treated as swim controls (SC), performed better than home cage control animals the DNMP task. The "catFISH" imaging method provided neurophysiological evidence that hippocampal pattern separation improved in animals treated as SC, and this improvement was even clearer in animals that experienced th

SUBMITTER: Carasatorre M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4526663 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature