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Activation of the locus coeruleus enables induction of long-term depression in the hippocampus
The intrinsic conditions under which synapses engage in syanptic plasticity are still not very well clarified.
In a recent study, Neal Lemon and colleagues demonstrated that test-pulse stimulation of the hippocampal CA1
region coupled with activation of the locus coeruleus leads to persistent long-term depression (LTD) in freely behaving rats
(link to paper).
Interestingly, the same locus coeruleus stimulation enhanced learning of a what-where-when spatial learning task.
And treatment with a beta-adrenoreceptor antagonist blocked both synaptic plasticity and learning. These finding suggest that activation of the locus coeruleus may comprise
an intrinsic component in naturalistic phenomena that lead to synaptic information encoding in the hippocampus.