Diverse action of repeated corticosterone treatment on synaptic transmission, neuronal plasticity, and morphology in superficial and deep layers of the rat motor cortex.

One of the adverse effects of prolonged stress in rats is impaired performance of skilled reaching and walking tasks. The mechanisms that lead to these abnormalities are incompletely understood. Therefore, we compared the effects of twice daily repeated corticosterone injections for 7 days on miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs), as well as on synaptic plasticity and morphology of layers II/III and V pyramidal neurons of the primary motor cortex (M1) of male Wistar rats.

Imipramine ameliorates early life stress-induced alterations in synaptic plasticity in the rat lateral amygdala.

Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) are two opposite forms of synaptic plasticity at the cortical and thalamic inputs to the lateral amygdala (LA). It has been demonstrated that maternal separation (MS) of rat pups results in alterations in the potential for both pathways to undergo LTP and LTD in adolescence. Imipramine, a prototypic tricyclic antidepressant, has been shown to counteract some detrimental effects of MS on rat behavior, however it is not known whether MS-induced alterations in the potential for bidirectional synaptic plasticity in the LA could be reversed by imipramine treatment.

Early life stress alters synaptic modification range in the rat lateral amygdala.

The influence of exposure to early adversity on emotional learning later in life remains poorly understood. Long-term potentiation (LTP) in the cortico-amygdalar and thalamo-amygdalar pathways has been postulated to provide a mechanism of synaptic modifications underlying fear learning and memory. These synapses also express homosynaptic long-term depression (LTD).

Brief neck restraint stress enhances long-term potentiation and suppresses long-term depression in the dentate gyrus of the mouse.

We studied the effects of brief (10 min) neck restraint on long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) in mouse dentate gyrus (DG) slices. Brain slices were prepared immediately after neck restraint and LTP/LTD induction was attempted 3.5h later.