The Effect of a CA1 Specific NMDA Receptor Sub-Unit Knockout on Mouse Behavior and Hippocampal Representations in the Transverse Patterning Task (8/99-4/00) |
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| Advisor: Howard Eichenbaum, Boston University Context: Research Assistantship |
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| Early on in my time in Dr. Eichenbaum’s lab I worked
closely with a graduate student to characterize the behavior and hippocampal physiology of
NMDAR1 knockout mice on the transverse patterning task. The transverse patterning task is
a somewhat unique task because it can be performed using different strategies, some of
which are dependent on the hippocampus and others are not. Using probes, the researcher
can determine which strategy the animal is using and look for cellular representations
that correlate with this strategy. We hypothesize that the NMDAR1 knockout mice will use a
non-hippocampal dependent strategy and will have different neuronal representations than
wild-type mice. On this project I was specifically involved in electrode building,
surgical implantation, setting up the computer automation of the task for doing
electrophysiology, and in some of the behavioral testing. The physiology for this project
is ongoing and the behavioral results have been published: Rondi-Reig L, Libbey M, Eichenbaum H, Tonegawa S. (2001). CA1-specific N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor knockout mice are deficient in solving a nonspatial transverse patterning task. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98(6):3543-8. |
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