MOLECULAR-GENETIC ANALYSIS OF SYNAPTIC PLASTICITY, ACTIVITY-DEPENDENTNEURAL DEVELOPMENT, LEARNING, AND MEMORY IN THE MAMMALIAN BRAIN

Recently, dozens of mutant mice generated with gene targeting or trans genic technologies have been shown to exhibit a distinct set of impair ments in the brain and behavior. In this review, we discuss how studie s of mutant mice have helped elucidate the mechanisms that underlie sy naptic plasticity and the relationship of these synaptic mechanisms to the activity-dependent phase of neural development and learning and m emory. We focus on the recent progress in the analysis of whisker-rela ted pattern formation, elimination of climbing fibers, long-term poten tiation, long-term depression, and various learning and memory tasks i n mutant mice.