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Hippocampal long‐term potentiation does not affect either discrimination learning or reversal learning of the rabbit nictitating membrane response
Author(s) -
Rioux George F.,
Robinson Gilbert B.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
hippocampus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.767
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1098-1063
pISSN - 1050-9631
DOI - 10.1002/hipo.450050303
Subject(s) - long term potentiation , nictitating membrane , neuroscience , psychology , perforant path , dentate gyrus , associative learning , hippocampus , hippocampal formation , ltp induction , extinction (optical mineralogy) , chemistry , classical conditioning , conditioning , excitatory postsynaptic potential , biochemistry , receptor , statistics , mathematics , mineralogy , inhibitory postsynaptic potential
The theoretical premise that the acquistion and storage of information occurs through the strengthening of synaptic connections has contributed to the popularity of long‐term potentiation (LTP) as a candidate neural mechanism for associative learning. However, whether experimentally induced LTP facilitates, disrupts, or has no effect on subsequent learning is a controversial issue. The present study examined the reported facilitative effect of LTP within hippocampal perforant path‐dentate gyrus synapses on subsequent discriminative conditioning of the rabbit nictitating membrane response. In addition, the effect of LTP on subsequent reversal learning of the initial discrimination was examined. LTP did not significantly affect acquisition of the initial discriminative response or subsequent reversal learning. Furthermore, the magnitude of LTP could not be used to predict the rate of acquisition of either task. The failure to find an effect of LTP on classical conditioning of the rabbit nictitating membrane response mirrors the recent failures to replicat the disruptive effect of LTP on spatial learning in the rat. Thus, the potential contribution of an LTP‐like mechanism to associative learning remains equivocal. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.