Elsevier

Neurocomputing

Volume 70, Issues 10–12, June 2007, Pages 2055-2059
Neurocomputing

Induction of synaptic depression by high-frequency stimulation in area CA1 of the rat hippocampus: Modeling and experimental studies

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2006.10.131Get rights and content

Abstract

It is generally accepted that low-frequency stimulation (LFS) induces long-term depression (LTD), while high-frequency stimulation (HFS) induces long-term potentiation (LTP). We performed modeling and experimental studies to see whether this commonly accepted view is the case for a wide range of stimulation frequencies, and found the induction of LTD by high-frequency stimulation of 300 Hz (HFS-LTD) both in simulation and experiments. HFS-LTD was occluded by standard LFS-LTD induced by 1 Hz–15 min stimulation, and blocked by D-AP5, W-7 or FK-506, but neither by Ni+ nor nimodipine. The analysis of the model suggested that the crossing of activation curve of CaMKII twice with that of CaN as the increase in [Ca2+]i was a possible mechanism for the induction of HFS-LTD in our study.

Introduction

It is reported that stimulation frequency lower than 10 Hz induced long-term depression (LTD), while that higher than this induced long-term potentiation (LTP) [4], [8], [9]. When the stimulation frequency is increased beyond 100 Hz, however, it is not clear whether the magnitude of LTP is kept constant, increased or even decreased. It was reported that the increased number of θ-burst stimulation reduced the magnitude of LTP [7]. This suggests that the stronger stimulation, which will lead to the very large increase in intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) of postsynaptic cells, reduced the magnitude of LTP. What will be the results if the stimulation is much stronger? To see this, we performed both modeling and experimental studies and found the induction of LTD instead of LTP by high-frequency stimulation of 300 Hz (HFS-LTD).

Section snippets

Materials and methods

Hippocampal slices were prepared from Sprague–Dawley rats (21–25 days old). Rats were anesthetized with ether and decapitated. Hippocampi were dissected rapidly and transverse slices (500 μm thick) were cut using a rotary tissue slicer at room temperature, then maintained in an incubation chamber in the presence of gassed (95% O2–5% CO2) extracellular solution containing (in mM): 124 NaCl, 3.0 KCl, 2.0 CaCl2, 2.0 MgSO4, 1.25 NaHCO3 and 10 glucose for at least 2 h at 30 °C. Immediately before each

Results

Simulations were performed at stimulation frequencies from 1 to 500 Hz, and DC was plotted as a function of frequency or [Ca2+]i (Fig. 2A top and middle panels). DC was negative and positive at frequencies lower than 12 Hz and between 12 and 200 Hz, respectively. At frequency higher than 200 Hz, however, DC was negative again, suggesting the induction of high-frequency stimulation-induced LTD (HFS-LTD, Fig. 2A top panel). Thin and thick arrows indicate zero-crossing position from negative to

Discussion

In the present study, 300 Hz-1s was used as a HFS-LTD inducing stimulus. Such high-frequency stimuli may cause unexpected firing. However, it is probable that larger [Ca2+]i increase will be seen at this frequency, and this will lead to the induction of HFS-LTD as suggested by the middle panel of Fig. 2A. The important implication of the present study is that at high [Ca2+]i the synaptic efficacy may possibly be depressed.

The Mg2+ concentration in the bathing medium was 1 mM in the present

Kazuhisa Ichikawa is a Professor of Department of Brain and Bioinformation Science at Kanazawa Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Kyoto University in 1989. He is working as a theoretical neuroscientists. He is in charge of modeling and simulation, and the analysis of the results. His long range research goal is to elucidate the mechanism of learning and memory in a computer executable expression.

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  • Cited by (5)

    Kazuhisa Ichikawa is a Professor of Department of Brain and Bioinformation Science at Kanazawa Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Kyoto University in 1989. He is working as a theoretical neuroscientists. He is in charge of modeling and simulation, and the analysis of the results. His long range research goal is to elucidate the mechanism of learning and memory in a computer executable expression.

    Akemi Hoshino is a Postdoctoral Fellow of Department of Pathology at New York University School of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. (Medical Science) from Graduate School of Medicine in Yamagata University in 2005. She is in charge of obtaining experimental data in this paper.

    Kunio Kato is a Professor of Department of Neuropsychiatry at Kochi Medical School. He received his M.D., Ph.D. in General Medicine from Yamagata University in 1989. He is working as a psychiatrist as well as a researcher for biological psychiatry. He is in charge of obtaining experimental data in this paper. His long range of research goal is to clarify pathogenesis of mental illness by using computational models.

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