Susan Koester, NIMH

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Susan Koester, NIMH

• Ph.D. in neural development back when
• Glu was a new neurotransmitter
• Cloning a gene was a Nature/Science paper
• Genetic homology across vertebrate/invertebrate
  divide was a new concept

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Lessons from Part 3

• Great science comes from
• good ideas,
• Broad knowledge of a field,
• Strategic and serendipitous collaborators,
• Great passion for the question

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Aplysia as an experimental animal
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The Circuit is hard-wired
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Behavioral Sensitization is Mimicked by
Pharmacology
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Cellular Mechanisms of Learning

• A change in the post-synaptic response to a
  stimulus means a change in the synapse by
• Synaptic growth or retraction
• Changing the strength of synapses

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cAMP

• Candidate molecule approach
• Krebs neurotransmitters cause increase in cAMP
  in other systems
• Serotonin causes increase in cAMP
• In parallel same biochemical pathways elucidated
  in Drosophila
• Protein kinase A

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Spaced training converts STM to LTM
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Long term memory needs protein synthesis

• pkA translocates to the nucleus
• Recruits MAPK, which also translocates to the
  nucleus
• Phosphorylates CREB-1 AND dephosphorylates CREB-2

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