First Author | Bohme GA | Year | 2000 |
Journal | Neuroscience | Volume | 95 |
Issue | 1 | Pages | 5-7 |
PubMed ID | 10619457 | Mgi Jnum | J:60079 |
Mgi Id | MGI:1352601 | Doi | 10.1016/s0306-4522(99)00483-2 |
Citation | Bohme GA, et al. (2000) Enhanced long-term potentiation in mice lacking cannabinoid CB1 receptors. Neuroscience 95(1):5-7 |
abstractText | Marijuana is known to affect learning and memory in humans, and cannabinoids block long-term potentiation in the hippocampus, a model for the synaptic changes that are believed to underlie memory at the cellular level. We have now examined the physiological properties of the Schaffer collateral-CA1 synapses in mutant mice in which the CB1 receptor gene has been invalidated and found that these animals exhibit a half-larger long-term potentiation than wild-type controls. Other properties of these synapses, such as paired-pulse facilitation, remained unchanged. This indicates that disrupting CB1 receptor-mediated neurotransmission at the genome level produces mutant mice with an enhanced capacity to strengthen synaptic connections in a brain region crucial for memory formation. |