Skilled-learning-induced potentiation in rat sensorimotor cortex: a transient form of behavioural long-term potentiation
Section snippets
Subjects
Twenty-six male Long-Evans rats, weighing between 350 and 425 g at the time of surgery, were used. The rats were obtained from the University of Calgary (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) breeding colonies. All animals were housed individually in clear plastic cages in a colony room that was maintained on a 12-h light/dark cycle. All experimentation was conducted during the light phase. Rats were maintained on Laboratory Diet no. 5001 (PMI feeds Inc., St. Louis, MO, USA) and water ad libitum, and were
Effects of skilled-training on reaching acquisition and evoked potential late component
The profile of number of reach attempts differed between the skilled- and unskilled-trained rats (Fig. 1A). The percent reaching success, expressed over 15 days of training, is represented in Fig. 1B and shows that, on average, the skilled-trained rats took 4 days to acquire the task requirements. Over days 5–8, the rats improved their motor skill, as evidenced by the slope (12.78) of the line during increase in skill proficiency. The slope (1.69) during the acquisition of task requirements and
Discussion
In the present study, two complementary experiments were performed to examine the synaptic plasticity and memory hypothesis in the caudal forelimb area of the awake, freely behaving rat. To our knowledge, this represents the first report of the effects of the acquisition of a skilled motor task on synaptic plasticity in the rat motor cortex in vivo. Two major findings arise from this work, and each will be revisited in turn.
Our first finding revealed that the increase in proficiency of a
Acknowledgements
Research supported by NSERC and CSN grants to G.C.T., and an NSERC scholarship to M.H.M. The authors wish to thank D. Pontin for technical assistance.
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Present address: Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, T1K 3M4.