Memory has been extensively studied at the behavioural as well as the cellular level. Spike timing dependent plasticity (STDP) is associated with N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor activation and is widely accepted to be essential for long-term memory. However, experimental evidence remains sparse, probably due to the required complex combination of cellular and functional readouts. Recent work showed that in-vitro cortical networks memorize and predict inputs. The initial dependency of prediction on short-term memory decreased during the formation of long-term memory traces. Here, we stimulated in-vitro networks to investigate memory and prediction under control conditions, or under NMDA block. The NMDA anatagonist 2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (APV) at a concentration that did not significantly reduce network excitability, but did impede long-term memory trace formation. In APV-treated cultures short-term memory of stimuli persisted, and they were still able to predict. In contrast to control cultures, prediction remained fully dependent on short-term memory. This confirms that NMDA receptor activation is essential for the formation of long-term memory traces and supports the notion that, as control cultures learn to memorize the stimulus, long-term memory starts to contribute to their predictive capability.

中文翻译：

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NMDA 受体在培养神经网络的记忆和预测中的作用

记忆在行为和细胞水平上得到了广泛的研究。尖峰时序依赖性可塑性 (STDP) 与 N-甲基-D-天冬氨酸 (NMDA) 受体激活相关，并且被广泛认为对长期记忆至关重要。然而，实验证据仍然很少，可能是由于需要细胞和功能读数的复杂组合。最近的研究表明，体外皮质网络可以记忆和预测输入。在长期记忆痕迹的形成过程中，预测对短期记忆的最初依赖性降低了。在这里，我们刺激体外网络来研究控制条件下或 NMDA 块下的记忆和预测。 NMDA 拮抗剂 2-氨基-5-磷酸戊酸 (APV) 的浓度不会显着降低网络兴奋性，但会阻碍长期记忆痕迹的形成。在经过 APV 处理的培养物中，刺激的短期记忆仍然存在，并且仍然能够预测。与对照文化相比，预测仍然完全依赖于短期记忆。这证实了 NMDA 受体激活对于长期记忆痕迹的形成至关重要，并支持这样的观点：当对照培养物学会记忆刺激时，长期记忆开始有助于其预测能力。