Project Summary

Jeremy Amiel Rosenkranz, Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2005) of Baylor College of Medicine, plans to study in an animal model the neurophysiology of the entorhinal complex (EC), a part of the brain that mediates emotional learning and may be altered in schizophrenia. The EC of patients with schizophrenia displays structural abnormalities, as well as a reduction of dopamine inputs and alterations of dopamine receptor number. Thus, it is possible that dopaminergic deficits in the EC may underlie some symptoms of schizophrenia. But the actions of dopamine on EC neurons have never been examined. These neurons display elaborate tree-like dendrites, where the bulk of inputs are received. In this study Dr. Rosenkranz will utilize electrophysiological recordings of single EC neurons from rat brain slices, in combination with calcium-imaging of neuronal dendritic activity. Dendritic excitability and the ability of these neurons to integrate inputs will be examined upon pharmacological manipulation of the dopaminergic system to determine if the actions of dopamine on EC neurons could be a substrate for dopaminergic enhancement of emotional memory. Also, the potential contribution of dopamine in the EC to psychiatric disorders will be examined using isolation-reared rats, a well-established rodent model of some of the symptoms of psychiatric disorders. Deficits in EC synaptic integration, dendritic excitability, and their modulation by DA will be examined in the animals.

Program Area: SCHIZOPHRENIA/PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS\Schizophrenia\Molecular

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