Accumulation of amyloid plaques comprises one of the major hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In rodents, acute treatment with amyloid-beta (Aβ; 1–42) elicits immediate debilitating effects on hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP). Whereas LTP contributes to synaptic information storage, information is transferred across neurons by means of neuronal oscillations. Furthermore, changes in theta-gamma oscillations, that appear during high-frequency stimulation (HFS) to induce LTP, predict whether successful LTP will occur. Here, we explored if intra-cerebral treatment with Aβ(1–42), that prevents LTP, also results in alterations of hippocampal oscillations that occur during HFS of the perforant path-dentate gyrus synapse in 6-month-old behaving rats. HFS resulted in LTP that lasted for over 24 h. In Aβ-treated animals, LTP was significantly prevented. During HFS, spectral power for oscillations below 100 Hz (δ, θ, α, β and γ) was significantly higher in Aβ-treated animals compared to controls. In addition, the trough-to-peak amplitudes of theta and gamma cycles were higher during HFS in Aβ-treated animals. We also observed a lower amount of envelope-to-signal correlations during HFS in Aβ-treated animals. Overall, the characteristic profile of theta-gamma oscillations that accompany successful LTP induction was disrupted. These data indicate that alterations in network oscillations accompany Aβ-effects on hippocampal LTP. This may comprise an underlying mechanism through which disturbances in synaptic information storage and hippocampus-dependent memory occurs in AD.

The first-episode of psychosis is followed by a transient time-window of ca. 60 days during which therapeutic interventions have a higher likelihood of being effective than interventions that are started with a greater latency. This suggests that, in the immediate time-period after first-episode psychosis, functional changes occur in the brain that render it increasingly resistant to intervention. The precise mechanistic nature of these changes is unclear, but at the cognitive level, sensory and hippocampus-based dysfunctions become increasingly manifest. In an animal model of first-episode psychosis that comprises acute treatment of rats with the irreversible N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-antagonist, MK801, acute but also chronic deficits in long-term potentiation (LTP) and spatial memory occur. Neuronal oscillations, especially in the form of information transfer through θ and γ frequency oscillations are an intrinsic component of normal information processing in the hippocampus. Changes in θ-γ coupling and power are known to accompany deficits in hippocampal plasticity. Here, we examined whether changes in δ, θ, α, β and γ oscillations, or θ-γ coupling accompany the chronic loss of LTP that is observed in the MK801-animal model of psychosis. One and 4 weeks after acute systemic treatment of adult rats with MK801, a potent loss of hippocampal in vivo LTP was evident compared to vehicle-treated controls. Overall, the typical pattern of θ-γ oscillations that are characteristic for the successful induction of LTP was altered. In particular, θ-power was lower and an uncoupling of θ-γ oscillations was evident in MK801-treated rats. The alterations in network oscillations that accompany LTP deficits in this animal model may comprise a mechanism through which disturbances in sensory information processing and hippocampal function occur in psychosis. These data suggest that the hippocampus is likely to comprise a very early locus of functional change after instigation of a first-episode psychosis-like state in rodents.

In the human cortex, event-related potentials (ERPs) are triggered in response to sensory, cognitive or motor stimuli. Due to the inherent difficulties of conducting invasive mechanistic studies in human subjects, little is known as to the precise neurophysiological mechanisms that lead to their manifestation. By contrast, although much is known about synaptic and neural mechanisms that underlie information processing in rodents, very few studies have addressed to what extent ERPs are comparable in rodents and humans. Here, we explored this by triggering ERPs in both species during the passive observation of visuospatial imagery, shown in an oddball-like manner, using an experimental design that was equivalent. Several ERP-components were identified in the rodent cohort, corresponding, for example, to the human P1, N1, and P2. ERPs that are likely to reflect a rodent N2 and P300 were also detected. Deviance, as well as repetition effects were evident in both species, whereby rodent ERPs displayed more immediate response alterations to repeated stimuli and humans showed more gradual response shifts. These results indicate that humans and rodents may implement similar strategies for the passive perception and initial processing of visuospatial imagery, despite clear differences in their sensory and cognitive capacities.