Fear conditioning enhances spontaneous AMPA receptor-mediated synaptic transmission in mouse hippocampal CA1 area

摘要: AMPA receptor-mediated synaptic modifications in the amygdala have been reported to sustain cued fear conditioning. However, hippocampal formation is also critically involved learning. Therefore, we examined whether conditioning accompanied by changes transmission hippocampus. We focused on spontaneous miniature excitatory post-synaptic currents (mEPSCs). Young adult mice were trained using tone/footshock pairings and contextual/cued memories tested 3-4 h 1 day later. found that mEPSC frequency was significantly enhanced when recorded 3 h, but not 24 after training. Fear training induced a slight enhancement amplitude at The increased absent animals only exposed footshock or novelty unpaired This implies learning association between context, tone transiently enhances CA1 transmission, which may contribute encoding of fearful event.