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Updated: Jun 2, 2026

Investigating Long-term Synaptic Plasticity in Interlamellar Hippocampus CA1 by Electrophysiological Field Recording
Published on: August 11, 2019
Learning-facilitated synaptic plasticity at CA3 mossy fiber and commissural-associational synapses reveals different
Hardy Hagena1, Denise Manahan-Vaughan
1Department of Neurophysiology, Medical Faculty, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitaetsstrasse 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany.
Abstract:
Subregion-dependent differences in the role of the hippocampus in information processing exist. Recently, it has emerged that a special relationship exists between the expression of persistent forms of synaptic plasticity in hippocampal subregions and the encoding of different types of spatial information. Little is known about this type of information processing at CA3 synapses. We report that in freely behaving rats, long-term potentiation (LTP) is facilitated at both mossy fiber (mf)-CA3 and commissural-associational (AC)-CA3 synapses by exploration of a novel (empty) environment. Exploration of large spatial landmarks facilitates long-term depression (LTD) at mf-CA3 synapses and impairs synaptic depression at AC-CA3 synapses. Novel exploration of small environmental features does not facilitate LTD at mf synapses but facilitates persistent LTD at AC synapses. Thus, depending on the quality of the information synaptic plasticity at AC-CA3 and mf-CA3 synapses is differentially modulated. These data suggest that expression of LTP as a result of environmental change is a common property of hippocampal synapses. However, LTD at mf synapses or AC synapses may subserve distinct and separate functions within the CA3 region.
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