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Conditional self‐discrimination enhances dendritic spine number and dendritic length at prefrontal cortex and hippocampal neurons of rats
Author(s) -
PenagosCorzo Julio C.,
Bonilla Andrea,
RodríguezMoreno Antonio,
Flores Gonzalo,
NegreteDíaz José V.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
synapse
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.809
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1098-2396
pISSN - 0887-4476
DOI - 10.1002/syn.21847
Subject(s) - dendritic spine , prefrontal cortex , neuroscience , hippocampus , hippocampal formation , conditioning , psychology , cortex (anatomy) , dendrite (mathematics) , cytoarchitecture , biology , cognition , statistics , mathematics , geometry
ABSTRACT We studied conditional self‐discrimination (CSD) in rats and compared the neuronal cytoarchitecture of untrained animals and rats that were trained in self‐discrimination. For this purpose, we used thirty 10‐week‐old male rats were randomized into three groups: one control group and two conditioning groups: a comparison group (associative learning) and an experimental group (self‐discrimination). At the end of the conditioning process, the experimental group managed to discriminate their own state of thirst. After the conditioning process, dendritic morphological changes in the pyramidal neurons of the prefrontal cortex and CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus were evaluated using Golgi‐Cox stain method and then analyzed by the Sholl method. Differences were found in total dendritic length and spine density. Animals trained in self‐discrimination showed an increase in the dendritic length and the number of dendritic spines of neurons of the prefrontal cortex and CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus. Our data suggest that conditional self‐discrimination improves the connectivity of the prefrontal cortex and dorsal CA1, which has implications for memory and learning processes. Synapse 69:543–552, 2015 . © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.