Brief Communication abstract
Nature Neuroscience 11, 1146 - 1148 (2008)
Published online: 7 September 2008 | doi:10.1038/nn.2184
Changes in neuronal excitability serve as a mechanism of long-term memory for operant conditioning
Riccardo Mozzachiodi1,2,3, Fred D Lorenzetti1,3, Douglas A Baxter1 & John H Byrne1
Learning can lead to changes in the intrinsic excitability of neurons. However, the extent to which these changes persist and the role they have in the expression of memory remain unclear. We found that in vitro analogs of operant conditioning produced a long-term (24 h) increase in the excitability of an identified neuron (B51) that is critical for the expression of feeding in Aplysia. This increase in excitability, which was cAMP dependent, contributed to the associative modification of the feeding circuitry, providing a mechanism for long-term memory.
- Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, W.M. Keck Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, 6431 Fannin Street, Suite MSB 7.046, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
- Present address: Department of Life Sciences, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi, 6300 Ocean Drive, Suite ST 321, Corpus Christi, Texas 78412, USA.
- These authors contributed equally to this work.
Correspondence to: John H Byrne1 e-mail: John.H.Byrne@uth.tmc.edu
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