Dissecting spatial knowledge from spatial choice by hippocampal NMDA receptor deletion
Open Access
- 15 July 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Neuroscience
- Vol. 15 (8), 1153-1159
- https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3166
Abstract
Using a novel spatial discrimination task, Bannerman and colleagues show that mice lacking hippocampal NMDA receptors in dentate gyrus and CA1 can encode and store spatial memories normally but fail to use this spatial knowledge to select appropriate responses from ambiguous choices. Hippocampal NMDA receptors (NMDARs) and NMDAR-dependent synaptic plasticity are widely considered crucial substrates of long-term spatial memory, although their precise role remains uncertain. Here we show that Grin1ΔDGCA1 mice, lacking GluN1 and hence NMDARs in all dentate gyrus and dorsal CA1 principal cells, acquired the spatial reference memory water maze task as well as controls, despite impairments on the spatial reference memory radial maze task. When we ran a spatial discrimination water maze task using two visually identical beacons, Grin1ΔDGCA1 mice were impaired at using spatial information to inhibit selecting the decoy beacon, despite knowing the platform's actual spatial location. This failure could suffice to impair radial maze performance despite spatial memory itself being normal. Thus, these hippocampal NMDARs are not essential for encoding or storing long-term, associative spatial memories. Instead, we demonstrate an important function of the hippocampus in using spatial knowledge to select between alternative responses that arise from competing or overlapping memories.This publication has 54 references indexed in Scilit:
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