Dietary polyphenol metabolite alters ca1 excitability and disengages corticohippocampal activities in anesthetized animals

Abstract

Dietary polyphenols have beneficial effects in situations of impaired cognition in acute models of neurodegeneration. Reported changes in blood flow might explain these effects. However, the possibility that they may have a direct effect on the electrical activity of neuronal populations has not been tested. Given the slow temporal dynamics of the cognitive and pathological events in which polyphenols have been implicated, it would be particularly relevant to explore any sustained and long-term changes to electrical activity. We explored in anesthetized female rats the systemic and direct effects of protochatechuic acid (PCA) on the CA1 population excitability. Also, we searched for sustained changes of ongoing network activity using state-of-the-art analytical techniques for brain source separation (independent component analysis) that provided pathway-specific field potential (FP) generators from laminar FPs simultaneously recorded in cortex and hippocampus using high density linear arrays across the CA1 and DG fields.