http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/13765/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/22574/ 2009-07-01T00:00:00Z Abstract We found that betaCaMKII, the predominant CaMKII isoform of the cerebellum, is important for controlling the direction of plasticity at the parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapse; a protocol that induced synaptic depression in wild-type mice resulted in synaptic potentiation in Camk2b knockout mice and vice versa. These findings provide us with unique experimental insight into the mechanisms that transduce graded calcium signals into either synaptic depression or potentiation. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/22573/ 2009-06-07T00:00:00Z We found that betaCaMKII, the predominant CaMKII isoform of the cerebellum, is important for controlling the direction of plasticity at the parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapse; a protocol that induced synaptic depression in wild-type mice resulted in synaptic potentiation in Camk2b knockout mice and vice versa. These findings provide us with unique experimental insight into the mechanisms that transduce graded calcium signals into either synaptic depression or potentiation. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/7999/ 2006-09-27T00:00:00Z Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) are distributed throughout the central nervous system and play important roles in the modulation of synaptic transmission. The mGluRs regulate long-term potentiation (LTP)/long-term depression (LTD) and learning and memory in hippocampus. This group of glutamate receptors are also reported to exert anticonvulsive and neuroprotective efficacy, especially group I mGluRs. Kindling induced by repeated application of the convulsant pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) is a validated model of epilepsy and epilepsy-related neuromorphological, neurophysiological and behavioural alterations. In this thesis, the role of group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) in PTZ induced seizures, kindling, kindling-related learning deficits and LTP were examined.