Single unit recordings were made from the motor cortex of conscious cats with glass micropipettes that allowed ionophoretic application of 0.5 M glutamate in 2 M NaCl or 0.5 M ACPD (1S,3R-1-amino-cyclopentane-1,3-dicarboxylic acid, a mGluR agonist) in 2 M NaCl. Activity in response to a 70 dB click (1 ms rectangular pulse to loudspeaker) was studied before, during, and immediately after applying each agent locally as a paired US (90 nA current 570 ms after click for 300 ms in combination with glabella tap). A 70 dB hiss sound was presented 4.4 sec after the click as a discriminative stimulus (DS). CS and DS were presented 10 times initially (adaptation); then CS, US plus tap, and DS (approximately 10 times as conditioning); and then CS and DS (2-10 times to test post-conditioning). Glutamate potentiated the mean, early, 8-16 ms response to the click after conditioning (t=18.2, p<0.0001), but not the baseline activity which decreased from a mean of 17 spk/sec to 7 spk/sec (t=3.71, p<0.001). Baseline activity increased to 31 spk/sec when glutamate was applied during conditioning (t=3.30, p<0.005). ACPD reduced the intermediate, 64-72 ms response to the click after conditioning (t=8.18, p<0.0001), and potentiated the late 104-112 ms response (t=15.4, p<0.0001). Baseline activity was slightly increased after conditioning with ACPD. Saline did not potentiate the response to click. The results indicate that glutamate agonists that differ in their receptor affinities can induce different CRs when used as locally applied USs to condition neuronal responses to a click CS in the motor cortex of cats., Ch. D. Woody., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The role of the striatal adenylyl cyclase (AC) and cholinergic systems in the learning and expression of new forepaw movements (reaching with prolonged pushing on a fixed piston) was studied in male Wistar rats. Motor learning processes, prenatal hypoxia, and cholinergic drugs changed the properties of the AC system in the striatum. After learning, the striatal basal AC activity was decreased compared to untrained control rats. In addition, the AC activity was more decreased in animals with a good ability to learn compared to poor learners (up to 31 % and 51 %, correspondingly; p<0.01). Rats subjected to prenatal hypoxia (13-14th days of embryogenesis) had a lower ability to learn the new movements requiring tactile control and the striatal AC activity in these rats was 1.8 times higher (p<0.001) than controls. In vitro application of the cholinergic agonist carbachol (CARB) 10-5 M (corresponding to ~ 0.3 µg), as well as the antagonist scopolomine (SCOP) 10-5 M (~ 0.3 µg) decreased AC activity in the synaptosomal fraction of the striatum. In vivo injections of CARB (0.3-3 µg/1µl) or SCOP (0.3-3 µg/1µl) into the ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens) modified the newly learned sensorimotor skill. After CARB injections the rats performed slower movements with more prolonged pushing. After SCOP the rats could not retain the learned pushing movement. These in vivo and in vitro data suggest that the cholinergic mediator system of the striatum is involved in learning sensory-controlled forepaw movements as well as the regulation of new motor skills by modulating the AC signal transduction process in the striatum. The data confirmed that modification of the striatal AC system resulted in the modulation of reaching behavior and better expression of the learned reflex., I. A. Zhuravin, N. M. Dubrovskaya, S. A. Plesneva., and Obsahuje bibliografii