Altered neural circuit activity: prenatal protein malnutrition and the paired pulse response

Measurements of extracellular field potentials recorded from the hippocampal dentate gyrus in response to single and paired pulse stimulation of the perforant pathway are utilized to assess the effects of prenatal protein malnutrition on the modulation of granule cell activity before, during, and after perforant path kindling in the rat. Results suggest that the prenatal dietary insult causes irreversible alterations to the modulation of dentate granule cell excitability in response to the neuroplastic reorganizations which occur within the hippocampus during kindling. Although the exact mechanism of these changes is unknown, these studies clearly identify the alterations in specific neural circuits which occur as a result of prenatal protein malnutrition and indicate that these alterations cannot be reversed by dietary rehabilitation at birth