Enhancement of hippocampal field potentials in rats exposed to a novel, complex environment.

The hippocampus plays a crucial role in place learning in rodents and also exhibits a long-term enhancement of synaptic strength and postsynaptic excitability following electrical stimulation of its principal afferents. In the present report we suggest that these two observations may be related, by demonstrating an increase in synaptic and postsynaptic field potential amplitudes resulting from exposure to a spatially complex environment.