Postsynaptic Receptor Trafficking Underlying a Form of Associative Learning
- 1 April 2005
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 308 (5718), 83-88
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1103944
Abstract
To elucidate molecular, cellular, and circuit changes that occur in the brain during learning, we investigated the role of a glutamate receptor subtype in fear conditioning. In this form of learning, animals associate two stimuli, such as a tone and a shock. Here we report that fear conditioning drives AMPA-type glutamate receptors into the synapse of a large fraction of postsynaptic neurons in the lateral amygdala, a brain structure essential for this learning process. Furthermore, memory was reduced if AMPA receptor synaptic incorporation was blocked in as few as 10 to 20% of lateral amygdala neurons. Thus, the encoding of memories in the lateral amygdala is mediated by AMPA receptor trafficking, is widely distributed, and displays little redundancy.This publication has 46 references indexed in Scilit:
- CD81‐induced behavioural changes during chronic cocaine administration: in vivo gene delivery with regulatable lentivirusEuropean Journal of Neuroscience, 2004
- Fusion pore modulation as a presynaptic mechanism contributing to expression of long-term potentiationPhilosophical Transactions B, 2003
- Active dendrites, potassium channels and synaptic plasticityPhilosophical Transactions B, 2003
- In search of general mechanisms for long-lasting plasticity:Aplysiaand the hippocampusPhilosophical Transactions B, 2003
- Long-term potentiation: outstanding questions and attempted synthesisPhilosophical Transactions B, 2003
- Long-term potentiation and memoryPhilosophical Transactions B, 2003
- Long-term potentiation in the EocenePhilosophical Transactions B, 2003
- Subunit-specific temporal and spatial patterns of AMPA receptor exocytosis in hippocampal neuronsNature Neuroscience, 2001
- Neural systems for the expression of hypoalgesia during nonassociative fear.Behavioral Neuroscience, 1996
- Simple memory: a theory for archicortexPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences, 1971