Analysis of AMPA-receptor trafficking during learning-induced reorganization of the auditory cortex

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Simon Rumpel
• Subject Area: Molecular Biology and Physiology of Neurons and Glial Cells
• Term: from 2002 to 2005
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5400182

The proposed project is designed to investigate molecular mechanisms underlying learning-induced remodeling of cortical circuits. Reorganization of cortical maps is a well described phenomenon in vivo. In vitro it has been shown that activitydependent trafficking of AMPA-receptors to synaptic domains is an important mechanism of synaptic plasticity. This project attempts to bring together plasticity phenomena at the systems level with those described at the cellular/molecular level. This will be done by experimental induction of plasticity of the tonotopic map in the primary auditory cortex of rats transiently expressing GFP-tagged AMPA-receptor subunits in vivo. Subsequently, brain slices of the auditory cortex will be prepared and incorporation of recombinant AMPA-receptors into synapses of infected neurons will be analysed by two-photon laser-scanning microscopy and patch-clamp whole-cell recordings. These investigations will provide valuable insights in the regulation of AMPA-receptor trafficking in vivo. Furthermore, they might reveal specific cell types and connections that express synaptic plasticity unter different experience of learning conditions.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA