"The Level of Serum Corticosterone Predicts the Magnitude of Hippocampa" by M. C. Bennett, David M. Diamond et al.
 

The Level of Serum Corticosterone Predicts the Magnitude of Hippocampal Primed Burst Potentiation and Depression in the Urethane-anesthetized Rat

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1991

Keywords

Brain Research, Corticosterone Level, Serum Corticosterone, Population Spike Amplitude, Colorado Health

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03332083

Abstract

Electrical stimulation of the hippocampal commissure with a pattern of pulses that mimics specific aspects of hippocampal physiological activity results in a long-lasting enhancement of the CA1 evoked response. We refer to this pattern-dependent increase in response as primed burst (PB) potentiation (Diamond, Dunwiddie, & Rose, 1988; Rose & Dunwiddie, 1986). The primary finding of the present study is that, in the urethane-anesthetized rat, there is a negative linear correlation between the magnitude of PB potentiation and elevated levels of serum corticosterone (r = −.76, p < .001). In contrast, there was no significant relationship between the magnitude of posttetanic potentiation (PTP) and the level of serum corticosterone (r =.13, p > .1). In addition, we observed a novel form of long-term depression of the population spike amplitude (PB depression) in recordings from 4 animals that had very high levels ( > 60/μg/dl) of corticosterone. The magnitudes of PTP were not different across groups that developed PB potentiation (n = 9), no change in response (n = 7), or PB depression (n = 4). These findings suggest that corticosterone exerts a concentration-dependent inhibitory influence on long-term, but not short-term, hippocampal plasticity in the urethane-anesthetized rat. The present findings complement previous work indicating that stress-related adrenal hormones, and corticosterone in particular, can modulate behavioral learning and hippocampal plasticity.

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Citation / Publisher Attribution

Psychobiology, v. 19, issue 4, p. 301-307

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