Lay Abstract PI: Foster, Thomas Proposal Number: IBN-9723055 Cognitive ability is dependent on the pattern of connections among nerve cells and the ability to transmit information between cells. Learning involves the adjustment of this transmission as a result of experience. There are a variety of mechanisms that could potentially alter the communication between cells in the brain. This project examines one of those mechanism, the ability of cells to adjust their release of the chemical substances important in transmitting information from one cell to another, in an important part of the brain called the hippocampus. Behavioral experiments dissociate the different aspects of experience that are critical for the modification of transmission between cells in the brain, while physiological experiments at the cellular level test hypotheses about the mechanism by which the communication between these cells is altered to reflect this experience. Examination of the role of different aspects of experience in driving the changes in cell function provides important information about learning. Combining this with studies of the cellular processes underlying these changes provides important information necessary to understand fundamental mechanisms by which the brain learns and adapts to novel environments, as well as processes important in development, aging, and recovery from injury.
