Modulation of learning and memory by stress: the role of steroids on behaviour and hippocampal neuronal plasticity in the rat

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Volker Korz
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2008 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 60474541

The study aims at investigating the effects of acute and chronic stress on memory formation at the systems and cellular level. The influence of stress on cognitive functions became of special interest in recent years, raising from the increasing significance of depressive illness and stress-related disorders. Typical symptoms of these disorders are modulations in releases of adrenal and gonadal steroids, stress related hormonal responses, that causes neuronal changes in various brain regions and deficits in cognition and emotional information processing. Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) are considered as the most prominent cellular models of memory formation and can be modulated by stress-related steroids. Therefore, in intact and freely moving animals the effects of stress on spatial learning and LTP (and later: LTD) will be studied, with special emphasis on differences between hippocampal subregions (dentate gyrus and CA1). Besides the contributions to the basic knowledge of memory mechanisms the study will contribute to the better understanding of stress-related disorders.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professorin Dr. Julietta Uta Frey