The effect of stress and spatial memory on hippocampus morphology

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event The effect of stress and spatial memory on hippocampus morphology Marisela Martinez-Claros1*, Jodi Pawluski1, Daniel-van Den-Hove1, Annemarie Van-Selm1, Jos Prickaerts1 and Harry Steinbusch1 1 Maastricht University, Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Health,Medicine and Life Sciences, Netherlands Information storage in the brain has always been a keystone for neurobiological research. Today we can talk about long-term modifications in synaptic efficacy and morphology as mechanisms of memory consolidation. These long-term modifications are activity-dependent. The hippocampus expresses a high degree of neuroplasticity and plays a crucial role in spatial learning and memory. To analyze plastic changes in the hippocampus the Morris water maze (MWM) has been frequently used. However, within the literature we can find some paradoxical effects in hippocampal plasticity after MWM training. These effects are probably related to stress which makes it difficult to compare the results between different research groups. The same holds true for studies on the effects of water maze learning on synaptogenesis. The aim of the present study was to determine how stress affects spatial memory and subsequently hippocampal morphology. As stress is commonly known to increase corticosterone levels, the following groups of adult male rats were used: trained animals (Sham, ADX, or ADX+cort) and cage controls (Sham and ADX). Rats were trained in a modified version of the Koop maze, a dry-land maze. In contrast to the MWM maze, the Koop maze does not have the stress associated with swimming. After training brains were harvested and used for Golgi impregnation to visualize dendritic morphology throughout the hippocampus. Preliminary results show that animals learned the task, however corticosterone manipulations affected the rate of learning. Presently we are investigating the learning-related morphological plasticity in the hippocampus of these animals to determine the effects of corticosterone and spatial learning. It is expected that animals that learned the task will have increased dendritic complexity in the hippocampus compared to cage controls. Conference: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting, Rhodes Island, Greece, 13 Sep - 18 Sep, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster presentations Citation: Martinez-Claros M, Pawluski J, Den-Hove D, Van-Selm A, Prickaerts J and Steinbusch H (2009). The effect of stress and spatial memory on hippocampus morphology. Conference Abstract: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.08.2009.09.225 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 11 Jun 2009; Published Online: 11 Jun 2009. * Correspondence: Marisela Martinez-Claros, Maastricht University, Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Health,Medicine and Life Sciences, 6200 MD Maastricht, Netherlands, m.martinez-claros@np.unimaas.nl Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Marisela Martinez-Claros Jodi Pawluski Daniel-van Den-Hove Annemarie Van-Selm Jos Prickaerts Harry Steinbusch Google Marisela Martinez-Claros Jodi Pawluski Daniel-van Den-Hove Annemarie Van-Selm Jos Prickaerts Harry Steinbusch Google Scholar Marisela Martinez-Claros Jodi Pawluski Daniel-van Den-Hove Annemarie Van-Selm Jos Prickaerts Harry Steinbusch PubMed Marisela Martinez-Claros Jodi Pawluski Daniel-van Den-Hove Annemarie Van-Selm Jos Prickaerts Harry Steinbusch Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.