MEMORY AND BEHAVIOR - A 2ND-GENERATION OF GENETICALLY-MODIFIED MICE

The use of standard genetic techniques, such as gene targeting and tra nsgenesis, to study cognitive function in adult animals suffers from t he limitations that the gene under study is often altered in many brai n regions, and that this alteration is present during the entire devel opmental history of the animal, Furthermore, to relate cognitive defec ts to neuronal mechanisms of memory, studies have relied on examining long-term potentiation - an artificially induced form of synaptic plas ticity, Recent technical advances allow the expression of a genetic al teration in mice to be restricted both anatomically and temporally, ma king possible a more precise examination of the role of various forms of synaptic plasticity, such as long-term potentiation and long-term d epression, in memory formation, Recordings from so called 'place cells ' hippocampal cells that encode spatial location - in freely moving, g enetically modified mice have further advanced our understanding of ho w the actual cellular representation of space is influenced by genetic alterations that affect long-term potentiation.