Abstract
Behavioral stimuli with emotional/motivational content can reinforce long-term potentiation in the dentate gyrus, if presented within a distinct time window. A similar effect can be obtained by stimulating the basolateral amygdala, a limbic structure related to emotions. We have previously shown that aging impairs amygdala-hippocampus interactions during long-term potentiation. In this report we show that behavioral reinforcement of long-term potentiation is also impaired in aged rats with cognitive deficits. While among young water-deprived animals drinking 15 min after induction of long-term potentiation leads to a significant prolongation of potentiation, cognitively impaired aged rats are devoid of such reinforcing effects. In contrast, a slight but statistically significant depression develops after drinking in this group of animals. We suggest that an impaired mechanism of emotional/motivational reinforcement of synaptic plasticity might be functionally related to the cognitive deficits shown by aged animals.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-5 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Neuroscience |
Volume | 108 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 5 2001 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Aging
- Cognitive impairment
- Dentate gyrus
- Learning
- Long-term potentiation
- Reinforcement
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Neuroscience