Modulation of adult neurogenesis by spatial learning

TRINCHERO MF; SCHINDER AF

Córdoba

Congreso; Annual meeting of argentine society for neuroscience; 2012

Society for Research in Neuroscience

Adult neurogenesis occurs in the hippocampus and olfactory bulb and it ismodulated by several physiological and pathological conditions. In this study weaimed to investigate how hippocampus-dependent spatial learning modulatesthe development and functional integration of adult-born dentate granule cells(GCs). A retrovirus expressing GFP was delivered to the dentate gyrus to labelnewly generated GCs. Two weeks later mice were exposed to the Morris WaterMaze. Morphology and expression of neuronal markers was analyzed in newlygenerated GCs after training and probe testing, performed at 27 days postinfection). Interestingly, while dendritic tree length remained unaltered, dendriticspine density was reduced in mice exposed to water maze learning. Thisreduction in glutamatergic connectivity might respond to the refinement ofafferent connections in neurons involved in the learning process. We arecurrently investigating the effects of spatial learning on the integration of fourweek old neurons, which are highly excitable and might be highly involved indemanding cognitive tasks.