9320549 Cleary Studies of the cellular basis of learning and memory support the idea that learning involves changes in the properties of individual neurons in the brain. There is already evidence that learning involves dynamic changes in the strength of the connections between nerve cells but it is thought that the structural connectivity between neurons remains stable. This proposal addresses a very important question - the relationship between changes in the cell's physiological properties and changes in the structure of the cells. This will be examined in sensory neurons of the marine mollusc Aplysia. These neurons are involved in the changes that occur when the snail learns not to respond to a noxious stimulus that is given over and over with little consequence, much in the same way that a human jumps in response to a loud noise but learns not to jump when that same sound is heard again and again. The experiments look at the structural changes in the neurons that occur with learning and how these structural changes are affected by chemicals that are known to interrupt the changes that occur in these neurons with learning. The results of this study will help us to understand the way that the cells in the brain change during learning and memory.
