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Dart Symposium on Learning and Memory

Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912

Six scientists were named Dart Scholars in Learning and Memory in 2005 and were sponsored by a generous grant from Dart Neurosciences, LP, to spend the summer at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) investigating biological processes involved in learning and memory.

Each of the six addressed a different aspect of how neuronal connectivity and activity change with experience. A symposium was held July 26, 2005, in which these investigators shared their experimental rationale and presented unpublished results from the summer’s efforts. It is hoped that this symposium was the first in an annual series.

The session opened with Dan Johnston (University of Texas, Austin), who presented data suggesting that backpropagation of action potentials opens glutamate-bound NMDA receptors, resulting in a decrease in overall excitability. The occurrence of such a reduction in cellular excitability in parallel with synaptic potentiation would be a negative feedback mechanism to normalize neuronal output firing and thus promote network stability.

David Glanzman (UCLA) spoke on his work with Aplysia sensitization and dishabituation of the defensive withdrawal reflex. His results suggest that postsynaptic calcium-dependent modulation of AMPA receptor trafficking play a critical role. Dr. Glanzman is developing zebrafish into a model organism for cellular and molecular analysis of non-associative memory.

William Frost (Chicago Medical School) spoke on new optical recording methods he was developing at MBL to apply to the study of learning and memory in the marine mollusc Tritonia diomedea. Startle responses to sudden, unexpected stimuli are markedly reduced when preceded by a weak stimulus of almost any modality. The new recording methods will be used to define the ionic and molecular basis for this pattern.

Paul Forscher (Yale University) presented high-resolution dynamic imaging of cytoskeletal dynamics in the growth cone of Aplysia neurons. Retrograde actin flow works in concert with cell adhesion to regulate direction and speed of growth cone advance towards its target. Dr. Forscher uses fluorescence and DIC imaging to analyze the precise molecular basis of these events crucial to neuronal growth cone guidance and the consequent formation of neuronal circuits within the brain.

The session ended with Elaine Bearer (Brown University) who spoke about her work using the giant axon of the squid as an assay for cargo motility. Injection of fluorescently labeled human herpesvirus into the squid axon has identified the molecular machinery mediating viral-motor interactions. Herpes simplex virus Type 1, a neurotropic virus that travels inside axons, was found associated with large amounts of the amyloid precursor protein, the major substrate for senile plaques found in Alzheimer’s disease. This predicts a role for transport, herpesvirus, and APP in the formation of memory, its maintenance, and its loss in aging.

Jeff Lichtman (Harvard) was also a Dart Scholar but was not able to attend the symposium.

	Footnotes

 
Received 19 March 2006; accepted 22 March 2006.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. L. McPhie and M. W. Miller Biological bulletin virtual symposium: marine invertebrate models of learning and memory. Biol. Bull., June 1, 2006; 210(3): 171 - 173. [Full Text] [PDF]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bearer, E. L. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Bearer, E. L. Related Collections Neuroscience - Learning and Memory Miscellaneous Invertebrates Neuroscience