The barrel cortex is part of rodent primary somatosensory cortex, engaged in processing tactile information from the vibrissae. This part of the cortex contains layer IV cytoarchitectonic units – barrels, each corresponds to one of the contralateral vibrissae. Short-term, classical conditioning paradigm, consisting of three daily sessions of tactile stimulation of a row of vibrissae paired with electrical shock to the tail, induces expansion of the representation of stimulated vibrissae, pronounced in layer IV of adult mice barrel cortex. This effect has been accompanied by elevation in mRNA and protein level of GAD67, selective up-regulation of GABA and GAD67 in neurons within centres of the barrels receiving inputs from stimulated vibrissae, and an increase in the number of GADimmunoreactive puncta. To investigate whether classical conditioning affects synaptic transmission in layer IV of the barrel cortex we recorded spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sIPSCs) using ex vivo brain slices prepared from adult mice previously subjected to conditioning. We show that this associative learning paradigm results in a selective increase in the frequency of sIPSCs in layer IV excitatory neurons located within the barrel representing stimulated vibrissae, evident 24 h after the end of training. These data indicate that aversive training results in a selective and long-lasting enhancement of GABAergic transmission within the cortical representation of stimulated vibrissae.
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