Back to Search
Start Over
Anterior thalamic lesions stop synaptic plasticity in retrosplenial cortex slices: expanding the pathology of diencephalic amnesia
- Source :
- Brain. 132:1847-1857
- Publication Year :
- 2009
- Publisher :
- Oxford University Press (OUP), 2009.
-
Abstract
- Recent, convergent evidence places the anterior thalamic nuclei at the heart of diencephalic amnesia. However, the reasons for the severe memory loss in diencephalic amnesia remain unknown. A potential clue comes from the dense, reciprocal connections between the anterior thalamic nuclei and retrosplenial cortex, another region vital for memory. We now report a loss of synaptic plasticity [long-term depression (LTD)] in rat retrosplenial cortex slices months following an anterior thalamic lesion. The loss of LTD was lamina-specific, occurring only in superficial layers of the cortex and was associated with a decrease in GABA(A)-mediated inhibitory transmission. As retrosplenial cortex is itself vital for memory, this distal lesion effect will amplify the impact of anterior thalamic lesions. These findings not only provide novel insights into the functional pathology of diencephalic amnesia and have implications for the aetiology of the posterior cingulate hypoactivity in Alzheimer's disease, but also show how distal changes in plasticity could contribute to diaschisis.
- Subjects :
- Male
Pathology
medicine.medical_specialty
N-Methylaspartate
Patch-Clamp Techniques
Thalamus
Amnesia
Gyrus Cinguli
Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate
Synaptic Transmission
Article
Retrosplenial cortex
Cortex (anatomy)
Neuroplasticity
medicine
Animals
Memory disorder
Long-term depression
alpha-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic Acid
gamma-Aminobutyric Acid
Neuronal Plasticity
medicine.disease
Rats
medicine.anatomical_structure
Anterior Thalamic Nuclei
Posterior cingulate
Synapses
Neurology (clinical)
medicine.symptom
Psychology
Neuroscience
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14602156 and 00068950
- Volume :
- 132
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Brain
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....68b2ff70c528d47dd6c921c39a6a99ad