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. 1978 Mar;75(3):1572–1576. doi: 10.1073/pnas.75.3.1572

Identification of pyramidal cells as the critical elements in hippocampal neuronal plasticity during learning.

T W Berger, R F Thompson
PMCID: PMC411516  PMID: 274742

Abstract

The activity of single neurons recorded from rabbit hippocampus during classical conditioning of the nictitating membrane reflex was studied. All cells were first categorized according to their responses after fornix stimulation--i.i., antidromic activation, orthodromic activation, or no activation. The majority of cells that were antidromically activated--pyramidal cells--showed a highly positive correlation between the pattern of unit discharge and the topography of the nicititating membrane response within trial periods. Units that were orthodromically driven by fornix stimulation tended to inhibit during the presentation of trial stimuli, whereas most non-activated cells maintained low spontaneous levels of activity at all times. Thus, the major output neurons of the hippocampus appear to be the neuroanatomical substrate for the large and rapidly developing neuronal plasticity induced by this classical conditioning paradigm.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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