ETHANOL INHIBITS TETRAETHYLAMMONIUM CHLORIDE-INDUCED SYNAPTIC PLASTICITY IN AREA CA1 OF RAT HIPPOCAMPUS

Dendritic recordings of the rat hippocampal formation were used to ass ess the ability of ethanol to inhibit the induction of synaptic plasti city due to bath application of the K+ channel blocker, tetraethylammo nium chloride (TEA). Brief application of TEA resulted in the enhancem ent of the population excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) slope b y an average of 26 +/- 3% over the pre-TEA baseline. However, coapplic ation of TEA and ethanol (100 mM) resulted in enhancement of only 10 /- 2% of the EPSP slope. These data suggest that LTP (long-term potent iation) due to the activation of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels is also i nhibited by ethanol.