Reference no: EM133209094

Question: You are studying changes in field EPSP (fEPSP) levels in the hippocampus before and after rats are trained in the inhibitory avoidance paradigm.

Baseline Measurements

Prior to the test, the perforant path of the hippocampus that projects onto cells in the dentate gyrus was electrically stimulated. At the same time fEPSP values in the dentate gyrus neurons were recorded. The magnitude of the fEPSP in this measurement was set as baseline.

Inhibitory avoidance paradigm

The animals are placed into a two-room chamber with a light side and a dark side, but access to the dark side is initially closed. The door to the dark side opens, but when the animal enters the dark side, they receive a shock, causing them to return to the light side. The length of time to return to the dark side (another shock is not given) is measured.

Post-Training Measurements

8 hours after the training paradigm, you again measure fEPSP values in the dentate gyrus after stimulation of the perforant path.

Animal Manipulations

Half of the animals were controls and had no manipulations other than the testing paradigms described above.

Half of the animals had a drug that binds intracellular calcium ions and prevents calcium's effects injected into the hippocampus prior to the inhibitor avoidance paradigm.

The drug was only given prior to the inhibitory avoidance paradigm. It was not given during the measurement of the fEPSP values.