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Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School

Series

Synaptic plasticity

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Ovarian Hormones, Aging And Stress On Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity, Michael R. Foy Jan 2011

Ovarian Hormones, Aging And Stress On Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity, Michael R. Foy

Psychological Science Faculty Works

The ovarian steroid hormones estradiol and progesterone regulate a wide variety of non-reproductive functions in the central nervous system by interacting with molecular and cellular processes. A growing literature from studies using rodent models suggests that 17β-estradiol, the most potent of the biologically relevant estrogens, enhances synaptic transmission and the magnitude of long-term potentiation recorded from in vitro hippocampal slices. In contrast, progesterone has been shown to decrease synaptic transmission and reduce hippocampal long-term potentiation in this model system. Hippocampal long-term depression, another form of synaptic plasticity, occurs more prominently in slices from aged rats. A decrease in long-term potentiation …


Differential Effects And Rates Of Normal Aging In Cerebellum And Hippocampus, Diana S. Woodruff-Pak, Michael R. Foy, Garnik G. Akopian, Ka Hung Lee, Jordan Zach, Kim Phuong Thi Nguyen, David M. Comalli, John A. Kennard, Alexis Agelan, Richard F. Thompson Jan 2010

Differential Effects And Rates Of Normal Aging In Cerebellum And Hippocampus, Diana S. Woodruff-Pak, Michael R. Foy, Garnik G. Akopian, Ka Hung Lee, Jordan Zach, Kim Phuong Thi Nguyen, David M. Comalli, John A. Kennard, Alexis Agelan, Richard F. Thompson

Psychological Science Faculty Works

Cognitive functions show many alternative outcomes and great individual variation during normal aging. We examined learning over the adult life span in CBA mice, along with morphological and electrophysiological substrates. Our aim was to compare cerebellum-dependent delay eyeblink classical conditioning and hippocampus-dependent contextual fear conditioning in the same animals using the same conditioned and unconditioned stimuli for eyeblink and fear conditioning. In a subset of the behaviorally tested mice, we used unbiased stereology to estimate the total number of Purkinje neurons in cerebellar cortex and pyramidal neurons in the hippocampus. Several forms of synaptic plasticity were assessed at different ages …


Estrogen And Hippocampal Plasticity In Rodent Models, Michael R. Foy, Michel Baudry, Roberta Diaz Brinton, Richard F. Thompson Dec 2008

Estrogen And Hippocampal Plasticity In Rodent Models, Michael R. Foy, Michel Baudry, Roberta Diaz Brinton, Richard F. Thompson

Psychological Science Faculty Works

Accumulating evidence indicates that ovarian hormones regulate a wide variety of non-reproductive functions in the central nervous system by interacting with several molecular and cellular processes. A growing animal literature using both adult and aged rodent models indicates that 17β-estradiol, the most potent of the biologically relevant estrogens, facilitates some forms of learning and memory, in particular those that involve hippocampal-dependent tasks. A recently developed triple-transgenic mouse (3xTg-AD) has been widely used as an animal model of Alzheimer's disease, as this mouse exhibits an age-related and progressive neuropathological phenotype that includes both plaque and tangle pathology mainly restricted to hippocampus, …


Progesterone Regulation Of Synaptic Transmission And Plasticity In Rodent Hippocampus, Michael R. Foy, Garnik Akopian, Richard F. Thompson Jan 2008

Progesterone Regulation Of Synaptic Transmission And Plasticity In Rodent Hippocampus, Michael R. Foy, Garnik Akopian, Richard F. Thompson

Psychological Science Faculty Works

Ovarian hormones influence memory formation by eliciting changes in neural activity. The effects of various concentrations of progesterone (P4) on synaptic transmission and plasticity associated with long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) were studied using in vitro hippocampal slices. Extracellular studies show that the highest concentration of P4 tested (10−6 M) decreased the baseline synaptic transmission and magnitude of LTP, but did not affect LTD. Intracellular studies suggest the P4 effect to be mediated, at least in part, by GABAA activity. These results establish a general effect of P4 on synaptic transmission, multiple forms of synaptic plasticity, and …