Investigation of "out-of-body experiences" (OBEs) has implications for understanding both normal bodily-self integration and its vulnerabilities. Beyond reported associations between OBEs and specific brain regions, however, there have been few investigations of neurochemical systems relevant to OBEs. Ketamine, a drug used recreationally to achieve dissociative experiences, provides a real-worl...

Results. The effect of ketamine had a de®nite daily variation in wild-type mice. No signi®cant difference in blood concentration was observed at different dosing times (10:00 and 22:00). In NMDA receptor e1 KO mice, the hypnotic effect of ketamine was weaker than in wild-type mice and there was no dependence on the time of administration. Signi®cant pharmacokinetic differences were not observed...

The anatomical distribution of sensory-evoked activity recorded from the hippocampal long-axis can shift depending on prior experience. In accordance with Marr's computational model of hippocampal function, CA3 NMDA receptors have been hypothesized to mediate this experience-dependent shift in hippocampal activity. Here we tested this hypothesis by investigating genetically-modified mice in whi...

MOLECULAR SITES AND MECHANISMS OF ACTION OF ALCOHOL ON THE NMDA RECEPOR GLUN2B SUBUNIT

Genetically modified mice shed new light on how ketamine can target NMDA receptors in the brain to reduce the symptoms of depression.

Stimulus-specific persistent neural activity is the neural process underlying active (working) memory. Since its discovery 30 years ago, mnemonic activity has been hypothesized to be sustained by synaptic reverberation in a recurrent circuit. Recently, experimental and modeling work has begun to test the reverberation hypothesis at the cellular level. Moreover, theory has been developed to desc...