Figure 4

Transient potentiation induced by sudden activation of NMDA receptors. (A) Superimposed averaged time courses of NMDA EPSPs for two pathways subjected to different stimulation protocols. Each point represents the average of measurements within 3 min intervals. Stimulation of one pathway (input 2) was stopped for a period of 30 min and then restarted at a time point when NMDA receptors were fully unblocked as judged by responses for the other pathway (input 1) that was exposed to the standard protocol. The peak of input 1 was taken as 100 %. (B) Time course of the newly evoked NMDA responses. Expanded portion of A immediately following restart of stimulation, each point representing measurement of a single EPSP. It can be noted that following the initial response there was additional growth for about a minute before responses started to decay. Values in both A and B are expressed as mean ± S.E.M (n = 8 experiments). (C) Examining the relation between the slow depression and the transient potentiation of NMDA EPSPs. Depression was quantified as end-of-session value relative to peak value (5 min averages) for input 1 that received the standard protocol. Transient potentiation was estimated as the average of the first 18 responses (3 min) of input 2 relative to the average of the corresponding interleaved responses of input 1. The latter value was nearly the same as the peak value. Each dot represents a single experiment (same set of 8 experiments as in A, B). The analysis revealed no significant correlation between the data points.