Effects of LTP Induction on Hippocampal Cellular Excitability in the Freely Behaving Developing Rat Brain

The goal of this paper is to describe the effects of the induction of long term potentiation (LTP) in the dentate granule cells of the hippocampus of the maturing rat brain. These effects will be quantified using paired pulse index analysis (PPI), a measure of the local circuit modulation of cellular excitability in the brain. In an effort to quantify these effects, LTP was induced using high frequency stimulation (HFS) of the perforant pathway-dentate gyrus synapse in freely behaving 10-12 day old, male Sprague-Dawley rats. The preliminary data shows a change in synaptic efficacy after the induction of LTP signifying that local circuit modulation is occurring.