Experience-dependent upregulation of multiple plasticity factors in the hippocampus during early XXXX sleep.

@entity2136 @entity71923 @entity11970 @entity27803 @entity5019 @entity71924 @entity49370 @entity11755 @entity35 @entity14889 @entity25
UNASSIGNED: Sleep is beneficial to learning, but the underlying mechanisms remain controversial. The synaptic homeostasis hypothesis (SHY) proposes that the cognitive function of sleep is related to a generalized rescaling of synaptic weights to intermediate levels, due to a passive downregulation of plasticity mechanisms. A competing hypothesis proposes that the active upscaling and downscaling of synaptic weights during @entity25 memories in circuits respectively activated or deactivated during prior waking experience, leading to memory changes beyond rescaling. Both theories have empirical support but the experimental designs underlying the conflicting studies are not congruent, therefore a consensus is yet to be reached. To advance this issue, we used real-time PCR and electrophysiological recordings to assess gene expression related to synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus and primary somatosensory cortex of @entity35 exposed to novel objects, then kept awake (WK) for 60min and finally killed after a 30min period rich in WK, @entity25 ( @entity25 ) or @entity11755 ( @entity11755 ). Animals similarly treated but not exposed to novel objects were used as controls. We found that the mRNA levels of Arc, @entity11970 , @entity5019 , @entity71923 and @entity71924 were significantly increased in the hippocampus of exposed animals allowed to enter @entity11755 , in comparison with control animals. Experience-dependent changes during sleep were not significant in the hippocampus for @entity2136 , @entity49370 , @entity14889 , and @entity27803 , and no differences were detected between exposed and control @entity25 groups for any of the genes tested. No significant changes in gene expression were detected in the primary somatosensory cortex during sleep, in contrast with previous studies using longer post-stimulation intervals (>180min). The experience-dependent induction of multiple plasticity-related genes in the hippocampus during early @entity11755 adds experimental support to the synaptic embossing theory.
