Figure 5
Learning-induced enhancement of spontaneous excitatory events is PKC dependent. (A) Spontaneous excitatory events recorded from a pseudo-trained neuron (left) and a trained neuron (right), prior to (top traces) and after (bottom traces) application of the PKC blocker, GF-109203X. While the drug has no apparent effect on the event amplitudes in the pseudo-trained neurons, high amplitude events in the trained neurons were reduced. (B) Amplitude histograms of the two neurons recorded in A. Note the large number of high-amplitude events in the trained neuron (top histogram, right) compared with the pseudo-trained neuron (top histogram, left). GF-109203X had little effect on the amplitude distribution in the pseudo-trained neuron (bottom histogram, left), while abolishing most of the high-amplitude events in the trained neuron (bottom histogram, right). (C) The averaged amplitude of the excitatory synaptic events is significantly reduced in neurons from trained rats after GF-109203X application (*p < 0.05), as result of which the difference in the average amplitude between the groups disappear. Data taken from 6 naïve, 9 trained and 5 pseudo-trained rats. Values represent mean ± SE. (D) GF-109203X reduces mostly the high-amplitude events in the three groups, thus affecting particularly the trained neurons, as seen by the deviation from the dotted line.
