Active Dentate Granule Cells Encode Experience to Promote the Addition of Adult-Born Hippocampal Neurons.

ABSTRACT: The continuous addition of new dentate granule cells (DGCs), which is regulated exquisitely by brain activity, renders the hippocampus plastic. However, how neural circuits encode experiences to affect the addition of adult-born neurons remains unknown. Here, we used endoscopic Ca²⁺ imaging to track the real-time activity of individual DGCs in freely behaving mice. For the first time, we found that active DGCs responded to a novel experience by increasing their Ca²⁺ event frequency preferentially. This elevated activity, which we found to be associated with object exploration, returned to baseline by 1 h in the same environment, but could be dishabituated via introduction to a novel environment. To transition seamlessly between environments, we next established a free

SUBMITTER: Kirschen GW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5426562 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature