Behaviorally Dependent Neuronal Gating in the Hippocampus

Abstract

The work of Andersen and colleagues in anesthetized animals first elucidated the lamellalike organization of the hippocampus and the synaptic physiology of the trisynaptic circuit by which the lamella is defined (Andersen et al., 1966a,b,c, 1971; Andersen and Lømo, 1966). It was demonstrated in these studies that, under appropriate conditions, a single electrical pulse applied to the perforant pathway activated the granule cells of the dentate gyrus and the CA3 and CA1 cells of the hippocampus in sequence (Anderson et al., 1966c). Thus, neuronal transmission occurred freely through the trisynaptic circuit under conditions of anesthesia. Figure 1 (from Winson and Abzug, 1978b) illustrates the trisynaptic circuit and representative field responses following a single pulse applied to the perforant path.