Hippocampal synaptic plasticity, spatial memory and anxiety.
Bannerman DM., Sprengel R., Sanderson DJ., McHugh SB., Rawlins JNP., Monyer H., Seeburg PH.
Recent studies using transgenic mice lacking NMDA receptors in the hippocampus challenge the long-standing hypothesis that hippocampal long-term potentiation-like mechanisms underlie the encoding and storage of associative long-term spatial memories. However, it may not be the synaptic plasticity-dependent memory hypothesis that is wrong; instead, it may be the role of the hippocampus that needs to be re-examined. We present an account of hippocampal function that explains its role in both memory and anxiety.