Posttraumatic loss of Long-Term Potentiation, a paradigm of memory at the nerve cell level.

Selective loss of Long-Term Potentiation, but not Depression, following fluid percussion injury. D’Ambrosio R., Maris D.O., Grady M.S., Winn H.R. and Janigro D. Brain Research (1998), Vol. 786 (1-2) pp. 64-79.

Synaptic long term potentiation is impaired acutely following fluid percussion injury.

Synaptic plasticity of the CA3-CA1 synapses was studied in the in vitro hippocampal slice preparation.
Upper panel: Induction of LTP elicited in control slices by a tetanic stimulation consisting of two trains of 1 second at 100 Hz (asterisk). LTP evaluated after 30 minutes from induction was 30±4%.
Lower panel: Data from slices obtained from FPI rats. Following identical tetanic stimulation paradigms, no statistically significant LTP could be induced (1±3%; control vs. FPI p<0.001, sham vs. FPI p<0.015). Middle panel: Results obtained from slices from sham-operated rats. Note that, while long-term potentiation could be induced in slices from sham-operated rats (15±4%; control vs. sham p<0.035), the overall magnitude of LTP was smaller than in slices from naïve animals. The insets in each panel show the average of 10 typical voltage records taken pre- and 30 minutes post-LTP.