Nature Neuroscience
4, 235 - 236 (2001)
doi:10.1038/85070
NMDAR EPSC kinetics do not regulate the critical period for LTP at thalamocortical synapsesAlison L. Barth
& Robert C. Malenka
Nancy Friend Pritzker Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 1201 Welch Road, Room P105, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California 94304-5485, USA
Correspondence should be addressed to Alison L. Barth abarth@stanford.eduBecause LTP and LTD may contribute to experience-dependent plasticity, a prominent hypothesis is that developmental changes in the biophysical and molecular properties of NMDA receptors (NMDARs) may regulate the duration of critical periods1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7. Here we report that susceptibility to LTP at thalamocortical synapses in early postnatal mouse slices is lost at a time point when the duration of NMDAR-mediated excitatory post-synaptic currents (NMDAR EPSCs) is not significantly altered. However, changes in the subunit composition of NMDARs, as defined pharmacologically, correlate strongly with the loss of the ability to generate LTP.
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