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Recent work has demonstrated that functional connectivity between remote brain regions can be modulated by task learning or the performance of an already well-learned task. Here, we investigated the extent to which initial learning and stable performance of a spatial navigation task modulates functional connectivity between subregions of hippocampus and striatum. Subjects actively navigated through a virtual water maze environment and used visual cues to learn the position of a fixed spatial location. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were collected before and after virtual water maze navigation in two scan sessions conducted 1 week apart, with a behavior-only training session in between. There was a large significant reduction in the time taken to intercept the target location during scan session 1 and a small significant reduction during the behavior-only training session. No further reduction was observed during scan session 2. This indicates that scan session 1 represented initial learning and scan session 2 represented stable performance. We observed an increase in functional connectivity between left posterior hippocampus and left dorsal caudate that was specific to scan session 1. Importantly, the magnitude of the increase in functional connectivity was correlated with offline gains in task performance. Our findings suggest cooperative interaction occurs between posterior hippocampus and dorsal caudate during awake rest following the initial phase of spatial navigation learning. Furthermore, we speculate that the increase in functional connectivity observed during awake rest after initial learning might reflect consolidation-related processing., (© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system with an important role in nociceptive processing. Storage of glutamate into vesicles is controlled by vesicular glutamate transporters (VGLUT). Null mutants for VGLUT1 and VGLUT2 were poorly viable, thus, pain-related behavior was presently compared between heterozygote VGLUT1 and VGLUT2 mice and their respective wild-type littermates using a test battery that included a variety of assays for thermal and mechanical acute nociception, and inflammatory and neuropathic pain syndromes. Behavioral analysis of VGLUT1 mutant mice did not show important behavioral changes in the pain conditions tested. Reduction of VGLUT2 also resulted in unaltered acute nociceptive and inflammatory-induced pain behavior. Interestingly, VGLUT2 heterozygote mice showed an attenuation or absence of some typical neuropathic pain features (e.g., absence of mechanical and cold allodynia after spared nerve injury). Chronic constriction injury in VGLUT2 heterozygote mice showed also reduced levels of cold allodynia, but had no impact on mechanical thresholds. Together, these data suggest that VGLUT2, but not VGLUT1, plays a role in neuropathy-induced allodynia and hypersensitivity, and might be a therapeutic target to prevent and/or treat neuropathic pain.

1. CGP 40116 is the active (R)-enantiomer of the most potent N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor antagonist presently available: 2-amino-4-methyl-5-phosphono-3-pentenoic acid (CGP 37849). In this study, we describe the effect of CGP 40116 on whole-cell currents induced by excitatory amino acids in cultured mouse spinal cord cells by use of the whole-cell patch-clamp technique. 2. We found that application of CGP 40116 in the nM range, concentration-dependently inhibited whole-cell current evoked by 20 microM NMDA in mouse cultured spinal neurones (IC50 +/- s.e. mean 48 +/- 8 nm CGP 40116). 3. The compound appeared to be highly selective for the NMDA current. At concentrations as high 1 microM, currents evoked by alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) or kainic acid were not affected by CGP 40116. The threshold concentration for antagonism of NMDA-induced responses was 10 nM suggesting a selectivity ratio of > or = 100 fold for NMDA receptors versus AMPA or kainate receptors. 4. CGP 40116 produced a parallel rightward displacement of the NMDA log concentration-current curve indicating competitive antagonism at the transmitter recognition site of the NMDA receptor complex. An apparent dissociation constant for the antagonist was calculated from the displacement of the agonist concentration-current curve: 117 +/- 53 nM CGP 40116 (estimated Kd +/- s.e.). Like other competitive NMDA antagonists, CGP 40116 blocked NMDA-evoked current in a voltage-independent manner.