Title: Disruption of rat deep cerebellar perineuronal net alters eyeblink conditioning and neuronal electrophysiology.

Title: Disruption of rat deep cerebellar perineuronal net alters eyeblink conditioning and neuronal electrophysiology. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2020 Dec 04;:107358 Authors: O'Dell DE, Schreurs BG, Smith-Bell C, Wang D Abstract The perineuronal net (PNN) is a specialized type of extracellular matrix found in the central nervous system. The PNN forms on fast spiking neurons during postnatal development but the ontogeny of PNN development has yet to be elucidated. By studying the development and prevalence of the PNN in the juvenile and adult rat brain, we may be able to understand the PNN's role in development and learning and memory. We show that the PNN is fully developed in the deep cerebellar nuclei (DCN) of rats by P18. By using enzymatic digestion of the PNN with chondroitinase ABC (ChABC), we are able to study how digestion of the PNN affects cerebellar-dependent eyeblink conditioning in vivo and perform electrophysiological recordings from DCN neurons in vitro. In vivo degradation of the PNN resulted in significant differences in eyeblink conditioning amplitude and area. Female animals in the vehicle group demonstrated higher levels of conditioning as well as significantly higher post-probe conditioned responses compared to males in that group, differences not present in the ChABC group. In vitro, we found that DCN neurons with a disrupted PNN following exposure to ChABC had altered membrane properties, fewer rebound spikes, and de...
Source: Neurobiology of Learning and Memory - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Neurobiol Learn Mem Source Type: research