Functional Metaplasticity of Hippocampal Schaffer Collateral-CA1 Synapses Is Reversed in Chronically Epileptic Rats

Figure 2

Functional metaplasticity by spatial memory training in young adult rats. (a) Experimental paradigm indicating pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus (“PILO”) and time points of both training and LTP in four groups of animals (control and epileptic rats, with or without training). (b) Spatial memory acquisition was again significantly impaired in epileptic animals (red symbols) compared to controls (black symbols). Moreover, there was also a significant difference between adolescent (gray symbols, data taken from Figure 1(b) for the sake of clarity) and young adult control animals (black symbols). (c, d) Spatial memory training (filled symbols) had no effect on subsequent CA1-LTP in vitro in controls but significantly enhanced CA1-LTP in young adult epileptic animals. (e) Bar graphs summarizing CA1-LTP levels of the four groups of animals. In addition, LTP data from adolescent controls taken from Figure 1(e) is given for comparison. .

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