A specific effect of morphine on evoked activity in the rat hippocampal slice.

The effect of morphine (0.5-50 microM) was examined on CA1 field potentials in the tranverse hippocampal slice. Morphine consistently produced an augmentation of evoked activity manifest as (i) a decrease in the threshold for generation of a population spike and (ii) generation of an additional population spike(s) whose amplitude was proportional to the position of the sampled response on its input/output curve. Both of these opiate effects were stereospecific and naloxone-reversible. Additional population spikes occurred in opiate medium with either orthodromic or antidromic activation of the pyramidal cells, and the antidromic effect was abolished when synaptic transmission was blocked, suggesting that morphine did not act directly upon the pyramidal cells. Recordings of population EPSPs in the dendrites of the pyramidal cells showed no changes due to opiate exposure near threshold. Opiate effects were mimicked by the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) antagonist picrotoxin, and were partially to fully reversed by GABA itself, suggesting that disinhibition of pyramidal cells might be involved as a mechanism in this opiate effect. The data are evidence for a specific primary effect of morphine within the hippocampus in spite of the low numbers of opiate receptors in this brain region.