Ocorr K A, Walters E T, Byrne J H
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Apr;82(8):2548-52. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.8.2548.
Bilateral clusters of sensory neurons in the pleural ganglia of Aplysia contain cells involved in a defensive tail withdrawal reflex. These cells exhibit heterosynaptic facilitation in response to noxious skin stimulation that can be mimicked by the application of serotonin. Recently it has been shown that this facilitation can be selectively amplified by the application of a classical conditioning procedure to individual sensory neurons. We now report that an analog of this classical conditioning paradigm produces a selective amplification of the cAMP content of isolated sensory neuron clusters. The enhancement is achieved within a single trial and appears to be localized to the sensory neurons. These results indicate that a pairing-specific enhancement of cAMP levels may be a biochemical mechanism for associative neuronal modifications and perhaps learning.
海兔胸膜神经节中的双侧感觉神经元簇包含参与防御性尾部退缩反射的细胞。这些细胞在受到有害皮肤刺激时会表现出异突触易化,这种易化可以通过应用血清素来模拟。最近有研究表明,通过对单个感觉神经元应用经典条件作用程序,可以选择性地增强这种易化。我们现在报告,这种经典条件作用范式的类似物会导致分离的感觉神经元簇中cAMP含量的选择性增加。这种增强在单次试验中即可实现,并且似乎局限于感觉神经元。这些结果表明,cAMP水平的配对特异性增强可能是神经元联想性修饰乃至学习的一种生化机制。