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Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Fast Micro-iontophoresis of Glutamate and GABA: A Useful Tool to Investigate Synaptic Integration
Published on: July 31, 2013
Glutamate receptors and synaptic plasticity: The impact of Evans and Watkins
G L Collingridge1, W C Abraham2
1Department of Psychology, Brain Health Research Centre and Brain Research New Zealand, University of Otago, New Zealand; Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Sinai Health System, Toronto, ON, Canada; TANZ Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Abstract:
On the occasion of the 40 year anniversary of the hugely impactful review by Richard (Dick) Evans and Jeff Watkins, we describe how their work has impacted the field of synaptic plasticity. We describe their influence in each of the major glutamate receptor subtypes: AMPARs, NMDARs, KARs and mGluRs. Particular emphasis is placed on how their work impacted our own studies in the hippocampus. For example, we describe how the tools and regulators that they identified for studying NMDARs (e.g., NMDA, D-AP5 and Mg2+) led to the understanding of the molecular basis of the induction of LTP. We also describe how other tools that they introduced (e.g., (1S,3R)-ACPD and MCPG) helped lead to the concept of metaplasticity.
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