Please answer the question fully while keeping your essay to 100 words. This may
ID: 3480797 • Letter: P
Question
Please answer the question fully while keeping your essay to 100 words. This may take careful editing on your part.
ESSAY QUESTION ON AP5:
In research using the drug, AP5, the implications are clear about what receptors are important for new learning and what receptors are important for old learning.
Briefly, in the experiment, rats were being trained to learn a maze. Rats who had not learned the mazehad AP5 administered to the areas of their dendritic spines. This blocked the formation of longtermpotentiation, thus, blocking new learning. What receptors were blocked in this case?
Other rats who had already learned the maze had AP5 administered to their dendritic spines. AP5 did not remove the longterm potentiation which had already formed, and did not remove the learning which had already occurred. What receptors were involved in this case?
To repeat the essay question, the experiments with AP5 show clearly that there is a difference between new learning and old learning. These differences have to do with the receptors involved. What does AP5 show us in terms of the receptors involved with new learning and with old learning? Name the receptors and the logical process by which you deduce them. (You may have to go beyond the AP5 experiments to discuss the receptors of old learning, but do not go into extended detail.)
Explanation / Answer
Answere
AP5 is a selective NMDA receptor antagonist. NMDA is a receptor requires for the formation of long term potentiation (LTP) in hippocampus and known to induce formation of new learning. This receptor is essential for the formation of new memories, however it has no impact on the processing or maintenance of already acquired memories (old). Thus in above experiments rats who were given AP5 have their NMDA receptor blocked which impaired their maze learning ability whereas blocking the NMDA receptors by AP5 in rats who has already learned maze, displays no impairment of memory.