The Corticohippocampal Circuit, Synaptic Plasticity, and Memory

Synaptic plasticity serves as a cellular substrate for information storage in the central nervous system. The entorhinal cortex (EC) and hippocampus are interconnected brain areas supporting basic cognitive functions important for the formation and retrieval of declarative memories. Here, we discuss...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology 2015-11, Vol.7 (11), p.a021733
Main Authors: Basu, Jayeeta, Siegelbaum, Steven A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Conditioning (Psychology)
Entorhinal Cortex - cytology
Entorhinal Cortex - physiology
Hippocampus - cytology
Hippocampus - physiology
Humans
Learning
Memory
Models, Biological
Nerve Net
Neuronal Plasticity
Neurons - cytology
Neurons - metabolism
Neurons - physiology
Synaptic Transmission
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Summary:Synaptic plasticity serves as a cellular substrate for information storage in the central nervous system. The entorhinal cortex (EC) and hippocampus are interconnected brain areas supporting basic cognitive functions important for the formation and retrieval of declarative memories. Here, we discuss how information flow in the EC-hippocampal loop is organized through circuit design. We highlight recently identified corticohippocampal and intrahippocampal connections and how these long-range and local microcircuits contribute to learning. This review also describes various forms of activity-dependent mechanisms that change the strength of corticohippocampal synaptic transmission. A key point to emerge from these studies is that patterned activity and interaction of coincident inputs gives rise to associational plasticity and long-term regulation of information flow. Finally, we offer insights about how learning-related synaptic plasticity within the corticohippocampal circuit during sensory experiences may enable adaptive behaviors for encoding spatial, episodic, social, and contextual memories.
ISSN:1943-0264
1943-0264
DOI:10.1101/cshperspect.a021733