Long-term potentiation of synaptic transmission in the hippocampus is the primary experimental model for investigating the synaptic basis of learning and memory in vertebrates. The best understood form of long-term potentiation is induced by the activation of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor complex. This subtype of glutamate receptor endows long-term potentiation with Hebbian characteristics, and allows electrical events at the postsynaptic membrane to be transduced into chemical signals which, in turn, are thought to activate both pre- and postsynaptic mechanisms to generate a persistent increase in synaptic strength.

A synaptic model of memory: long-term potentiation in the hippocampus

The brain is the key organ of the response to stress because it determines what is threatening and, therefore, potentially stressful, as well as the physiological and behavioral responses which can be either adaptive or damaging. Stress involves two-way communication between the brain and the cardiovascular, immune, and other systems via neural and endocrine mechanisms. Beyond the "flight-or-fight" response to acute stress, there are events in daily life that produce a type of chronic stress and lead over time to wear and tear on the body ("allostatic load"). Yet, hormones associated with stress protect the body in the short-run and promote adaptation ("allostasis"). The brain is a target of stress, and the hippocampus was the first brain region, besides the hypothalamus, to be recognized as a target of glucocorticoids. Stress and stress hormones produce both adaptive and maladaptive effects on this brain region throughout the life course. Early life events influence life-long patterns of emotionality and stress responsiveness and alter the rate of brain and body aging. The hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex undergo stress-induced structural remodeling, which alters behavioral and physiological responses. As an adjunct to pharmaceutical therapy, social and behavioral interventions such as regular physical activity and social support reduce the chronic stress burden and benefit brain and body health and resilience.

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Physiology and Neurobiology of Stress and Adaptation: Central Role of the Brain

http://www.tmslab.org/tms%20articles%20safety/017.pdf

Risk and safety of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation: report and suggested guidelines from the International Workshop on the Safety of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, June 5–7, 1996

Aging causes changes in the hippocampus that may lead to cognitive decline in older adults. In young animals, exercise increases hippocampal neurogenesis and improves learning. We investigated whether voluntary wheel running would benefit mice that were sedentary until 19 months of age. Specifically, young and aged mice were housed with or without a running wheel and injected with bromodeoxyuridine or retrovirus to label newborn cells. After 1 month, learning was tested in the Morris water maze. Aged runners showed faster acquisition and better retention of the maze than age-matched controls. The decline in neurogenesis in aged mice was reversed to 50% of young control levels by running. Moreover, fine morphology of new neurons did not differ between young and aged runners, indicating that the initial maturation of newborn neurons was not affected by aging. Thus, voluntary exercise ameliorates some of the deleterious morphological and behavioral consequences of aging.

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/25/38/8680.full.pdf

Exercise Enhances Learning and Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Aged Mice

Applications of the Morris water maze in the study of learning and memory.

Hippocampal markers of age-related memory dysfunction: behavioral, electrophysiological and morphological perspectives.

Induction of long-term potentiation is associated with an increase in the number of axospinous synapses with segmented postsynaptic densities.

Previous attempts to elucidate whether a loss of hippocampal synapses occurs during aging provided conflicting results, possibly due to the unavailability, at the time, of unbiased methods for synapse quantitation. This study was designed to reexamine the issue by means of modern technical procedures that provide unbiased estimates of synaptic numbers. Groups of 14 young adult (5 months old) and 14 aged (28 months old) male Fischer-344 rats were compared. Synapses were examined in the middle (MML) and inner (IML) molecular layer of the hippocampal dentate gyrus, where synaptic contacts are predominantly formed by different systems of afferents, the entorhinal and commissural-associational fibers, respectively. The number of synapses per neuron was estimated with the aid of the stereological dissector technique. The results showed that the total number of synaptic contacts per neuron was significantly diminished in the MML (by 23.6%) and IML (by 22.7%) of aged rats relative to young adults. This age-related synaptic loss involved axospinous, but not axodendritic, junctions of the MML (-24.4%) and IML (-24.0%). Both perforated and nonperforated axospinous synapses (distinguished by a discontinuous or continuous postsynaptic density, respectively) exhibited an age-dependent decrease in numbers, though this decrease did not reach statistical significance in the case of perforated junctions of the IML. The observed age-related loss of axospinous synapses may underlie the reduction in the amplitude of excitatory postsynaptic potentials and the decline in functional synaptic plasticity detected in the dentate gyrus of senescent rats.

Age-related loss of axospinous synapses formed by two afferent systems in the rat dentate gyrus as revealed by the unbiased stereological dissector technique.

This article has three goals: (1) to review the evidence that bears upon the occurrence of secondary epileptogenesis in man, (2) to set forth the criteria that distinguish secondary epileptogenesis from multifocal epilepsy--both clinically and by pharmacologic means--and (3) to indicate the importance of an understanding of the pathophysiology of secondary epileptogenesis to clinical decision making in the care of epileptic patients. In Section I, the three different developmental stages of secondary epileptogenesis defined in experimental preparations are outlined, and particular emphasis is placed on the remarkable similarity in the electrographic manifestations reported from animal species ranging from reptile to baboon. The clinical manifestations differ depending, within species, on exactly where in the brain the primary focus is situated and, between species, on the different organizations of the neural substrate within which epileptiform discharge is engendered. Section II is devoted to a review of three separate series of patients whose presenting symptom was epilepsy and in whom the etiology proved to be a histologically verified brain tumor or malformation. The choice of patient material was dictated by the conclusion that the main barrier to acceptance of human secondary epileptogenesis is the difficulty of distinguishing between multiple primary lesions maturing at different rates and those secondarily induced by an already existing single one. In the vast majority of patients where trauma, infection, anoxia, and vascular disease represent the most common etiologies, multiple primary structural injury is an ever-present possibility. Restricting our analysis to tumors of neural, glial, or vascular origin eliminates, as far as practicable, the issue of multiple primary lesions. A significant number of patients with focal epilepsy develop secondary epileptogenic lesions. The evidence presented shows that a primary epileptogenic lesion in man may induce a trans-synaptic and long-lasting alteration in nerve cell behavior characterized by paroxysmal electrographic manifestations and clinical seizures. Furthermore, the more frequent the seizures, the more likely is a secondary focus to become permanent. These observations underscore the importance of rigorous seizure control (electrographic as well as behavioral) and raise the question of earlier surgical intervention where medicinal therapy fails.

Varieties of human secondary epileptogenesis.

Synapses in the middle molecular layer of the rat dentate gyrus were analyzed by electron microscopy during the maintenance phase of long-term potentiation (LTP). LTP was induced by high-frequency stimulation of the medial perforant path carried out on each of 4 consecutive days. The dentate gyrus was examined electron microscopically 13 days following the fourth stimulation. At this time point, synaptic responses were still significantly enhanced relative to baseline, although the extent of their potentiation was lower than 1 hour after the last high-frequency stimulation. Stimulated, but not potentiated, rats served as controls. Using the stereological double disector method, estimates of the number of different morphological types of synapses per postsynaptic neuron were obtained. The number of asymmetrical axodendritic synapses increased (by 28%) during LTP maintenance, whereas the number of other synaptic types was not significantly altered. Our previous work demonstrated that the induction of LTP is followed by a selective increase in the number of axospinous perforated synapses with multiple, completely partitioned, transmission zones. Thus, the induction and maintenance phases of LTP are characterized by different structural synaptic alterations. These alterations may be related to each other as indicated by another finding of the present study regarding the existence of perforated synapses that appear to be transitional between axospinous and axodendritic junctions. This suggests a model of structural synaptic plasticity associated with LTP in which some axospinous perforated synapses increase in numbers shortly after the induction of LTP and are then converted into axodendritic ones during LTP maintenance.

Frank Morrell

Papers

Hippocampal markers of age-related memory dysfunction: behavioral, electrophysiological and morphological perspectives.

Induction of long-term potentiation is associated with an increase in the number of axospinous synapses with segmented postsynaptic densities.

Age-related loss of axospinous synapses formed by two afferent systems in the rat dentate gyrus as revealed by the unbiased stereological dissector technique.

Varieties of human secondary epileptogenesis.

Synapse restructuring associated with the maintenance phase of hippocampal long‐term potentiation