one of the new research fields in plasticity is related to choosing a proper non-associated flow rule (nafr), instead of the associated one (afr), to predict the experimental results more accurately. the idea of the current research is derived from combining von mises and tresca criteria in the places of yield and plastic potential surfaces in rate-independent plasticity.  this idea is implemen...

Introduction: The effects of cannabinoids (CBs) on synaptic plasticity of hippocampal dentate gyrus neurons have been shown in numerous studies. However, the effect of repeated exposure to cannabinoids on hippocampal function is not fully understood. In this study, using field potential recording, we investigated the effect of repeated administration of the nonselective CB receptor agonist WIN5...

Fetal alcohol syndrome is a major cause of learning and sensory deficits. These disabilities may result from disruption of neocortex development and plasticity. Alcohol exposure during the third trimester equivalent of human gestation may have especially severe and long-lasting consequences on learning and sensory processing, because this is when the functional properties and connectivity of ne...

Despite its central role in the adaptation and microevolution of traits, the genetic architecture of phenotypic plasticity, i.e. multiple phenotypes produced by a single genotype in changing environments, remains elusive. We know little about the genes that underlie the plastic response of traits to the environment, their number, chromosomal locations and genetic interactions as well as environ...

H umans and animals learn by modifying the synaptic strength between neurons, a phenomenon known as synaptic plasticity. These changes can be induced by rather short stimuli (lasting, for instance, only a few seconds), yet, in order to be useful for long-term memory, they should remain stable for months or years. Experimentalists study synaptic plasticity by applying a vast variety of protocols...

The ocular dominance (OD) shift that occurs in visual cortex after brief monocular deprivation (MD) is a classic model of experience-dependent cortical plasticity. It has been suggested that OD plasticity in layer 2/3 of visual cortex precedes and is necessary for plasticity in the thalamocortical input layer 4. Here, we show in mouse visual cortex that rapid OD plasticity occurs simultaneously...

Repetitive magnetic stimulation (rTMS), including theta burst stimulation (TBS), is capable of modulating motor cortical excitability through plasticity-like mechanisms and might have therapeutic potential for Parkinson's disease (PD). An animal model would be helpful for elucidating the mechanism of rTMS that remain unclear and controversial. Here, we have established a TMS model in rat and ap...

The plasticity in the medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC) of rodents or lateral prefrontal cortex in non human primates (lPFC), plays a key role neural circuits involved in learning and memory. Several genes, like brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), cAMP response element binding (CREB), Synapsin I, Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CamKII), activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associ...