Novel Mechanism for Long-Term Learning Identified by Carnegie Mellon R...(mpair further learning. According to Bar...),Health

Date:1/3/2008

mpair further learning. According to Barth, scientists knew that logically, after an initial learning or training experience, this change in receptor function and resulting synapse deterioration would mean that learning would stop, and perhaps with continued stimulation neural processes might even degrade -- but experience showed that that wasn't the case.

"We know intuitively that the more we practice something, the better we get, so there had to be something that happened after the NMDA receptors switched function which helped synapses to continue to strengthen," said Barth, an assistant professor of biological sciences at the university's Mellon College of Science.

Barth chose to look at the cortex, an area of the brain responsible for a slower form of learning that can improve with additional training or experience. She notes that this brain area may use very different molecular mechanisms than other forms of short-term, episodic memory like those that may occur in the hippocampus.

In a series of experiments the researchers blocked different receptors, including NMDA, to see the receptors' effect on long-term neural stimulation. They found that while the NMDA receptor is required to begin neural strengthening, a second neurotransmitter receptor -- the metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptor -- comes into play after this first phase of cellular learning. Using an NMDA antagonist to block NMDA receptors after the initiation of plasticity resulted in enhanced synaptic strengthening, while blocking mGlu receptors caused strengthening to stop.

The Carnegie Mellon researchers tracked the changes in the neurons by using a transgenic mouse model that Barth created. In the model, a mild sensory imbalance is created by allowing the mouse to sense its surrounding through only one whisker. Whiskers are useful in studying sensory plasticity because, like human fingers, each whisker is linked to its own unique area of the brain's cortex, making it e
'/>"/>

SOURCE Carnegie Mellon University Copyright©2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

0 GOOD

Page: 1 2 3
Related medicine technology :

1. Novel Technology Breaks Through Cancer Pain
2. Iomai Trial Shows 100 Percent Immune Response in Elderly Subjects Vaccinated With Novel Travelers Diarrhea Patch Vaccine
3. Pharmacopeia Assists the World Health Organization in the Discovery of Novel Therapeutics for the Treatment of Malaria
4. Quark Pharmaceuticals Files Patent Application Covering Novel Chemical Modifications to its RNAi Molecules
5. Ardea Biosciences, Inc. Announces Completion of Phase 1 Clinical Trials of Novel Investigational HIV Drug RDEA806
6. The Lancet Publishes Major Phase 3 Study on Novel Oral Direct Thrombin Inhibitor
7. Study Results for Aclidinium Bromide, a Novel Anticholinergic, Presented at European Respiratory Society Annual Congress
8. Phase 2 Clinical Studies Initiated for a Novel Therapeutic Candidate Identified Through Pharmacopeia Collaboration
9. Oncology Drugs Development Update - Worldwide Markets and Forecasts of Approved EGFr/HEr2 Inhibitors, Treatment Costs, Pathway Analysis, Current and Expanded Clinical Indications, and Novel Agents in Development
10. ECLIPSE Data on Effects of Otsukas Investigational Novel Treatment, Tolvaptan, on Advanced Heart Failure Patients Hemodynamics and Urine Output Featured in Heart Failure Society of Americas Late Breaking Trials
11. Ardea Biosciences, Inc. Presents Results of Phase 1 Studies of RDEA806, a Novel NNRTI for HIV, at 47th ICAAC