Role of Endocannabinoids
Endocannabinoids affect long-lasting plasticity processes in various parts of the brain, serving both as regulators of pathways and necessary retrograde messengers in specific forms of LTD. In regard to retrograde signaling, endocannabinoid receptors (CB1) function widely throughout the brain in presynaptic inhibition. Endocannabinoid retrograde signaling has been shown to effect LTD at corticostriatal synapses and glutamatergic synapses in the prelimbic cortex of the nucleus accumbens (NAc), and it is also involved in spike-timing-dependent LTD in the visual cortex. Endocannabinoids are implicated in LTD of inhibitory inputs (LTDi) within the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA) as well as in the stratum radiatum of the hippocampus. Additionally, endocannabinoids play an important role in regulating various forms of synaptic plasticity. They are involved in inhibition of LTD at parallel fiber Purkinje neuron synapses in the cerebellum and NMDA receptor-dependent LTD in the hippocampus.
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