Posthypoxic frequency decline (PHFD) refers to the undershoot in respiratory frequency that follows brief hypoxic exposures. Lateral pontine neurons are required for PHFD. The neurotransmitters involved in the circuit that activate and/or are released by these pontine neurons regulating PHFD are unknown. We hypothesized that N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are required for PHFD, because o...

28 29 Activity of neurons in the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus nerve (DMV) is 30 closely regulated by synaptic input, and regulation of that input by glutamate receptors 31 on presynaptic terminals has been proposed. Presynaptic NMDA receptors have been 32 identified in a number of brain regions and act to modulate neurotransmitter release, but 33 functional presynaptic NMDA receptors have ...

Alterations in the function and expression of NMDA receptors are observed after in vivo and in vitro traumatic brain injury. We recently reported that mechanical stretch injury in cortical neurons transiently increases the contribution of NMDA receptors to network activity and results in an increase in calcium-permeable AMPA (CP-AMPA) receptor-mediated transmission 4 h postinjury (Goforth et al...

Synchronized discharges in the hippocampal CA3 recurrent network are supposed to underlie network oscillations, memory formation and seizure generation. In the hippocampal CA3 network, NMDA receptors are abundant at the recurrent synapses but scarce at the mossy fiber synapses. We generated mutant mice in which NMDA receptors were abolished in hippocampal CA3 pyramidal neurons by postnatal day ...

Delayed-rectifier Kv2.1 potassium channels regulate somatodendritic excitability during periods of repetitive, high-frequency activity. Recent evidence suggests that Kv2.1 channel modulation is linked to glutamatergic neurotransmission. Because NMDA-type glutamate receptors are critical regulators of synaptic plasticity, we investigated NMDA receptor modulation of Kv2.1 channels in rodent hippo...

The effect of increasing the expression of NMDA subunits in cerebellar granule cells (CGCs) by transfection was studied to determine how the availability of various NMDA subunits controls both the total pool of functional receptors and the synaptic pool. Overexpression of either NR2A or NR2B, but not splice variants of NR1, by transfection caused a significant increase in the total number of fu...

At many central excitatory synapses, AMPA receptors relay the electrical signal, whereas activation of NMDA receptors is conditional and serves a modulatory function. We show here quite a different role for NMDA receptors at dendrodendritic synapses between mitral and granule cells in the rat olfactory bulb. In whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in bulb slices, stimulation of mitral cells elicit...

The N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor is assembled using proteins from two gene families, NR1 and NR2. Although a few studies have examined the composition of NMDA receptors containing NR1, NR2A, and NR2B, the composition of native NMDA receptors that incorporate the NR2D subunit is not known. The goal of the current study was to examine the subunit composition of native NMDA receptors that ...

Pattern completion, the ability to retrieve complete memories initiated by subsets of external cues, has been a major focus of many computation models. A previously study reports that such pattern completion requires NMDA receptors in the hippocampus. However, such a claim was derived from a non-inducible gene knockout experiment in which the NMDA receptors were absent throughout all stages of ...

Converging evidence suggests that salience-associated modulation of behavior is mediated by the release of monoamines and that monoaminergic activation of D(1)/D(5) receptors is required for normal hippocampal-dependent learning and memory. However, it is not understood how D(1)/D(5) modulation of hippocampal circuits can affect salience-associated learning and memory. We have observed in CA1 p...