Impact of social recognition training on dCA2 synaptic plasticity: preliminary results and analysis considerations

Social recognition memory (SRM) is the ability to identify and remember conspecifics, an essential feature of social animals. Despite the significant efforts invested in understanding its neurobiological mechanisms, our knowledge at the molecular and circuit levels remains incomplete. Over the last decades, the neuropeptide oxytocin has been shown to be relevant for SRM formation, but the mechanisms at the circuit level are not widely understood. Our aim is to expand the knowledge on the neural circuits through which OXT modulates SRM. Specifically, we want to understand how OXT modulates SRM-associated synaptic plasticity in dorsal CA2 (CA2d). To this end, we used ex-vivo electrophysiology to characterize the neuronal plasticity triggered by peer interaction. We compare different off-line analysis tools for quantifying field postsynaptic potentials (fPSPs) in CA2d, using data from animals that underwent SRT training and from naive animals. Our preliminary results show that in brain slices from adult male mice that underwent a SRT training session, potentiation in dorsal dCA2 was blunted when compared to naive mice. We discuss the constraints of the analyses used, and propose a plan for future analyses.