Postnatal hypofunction of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors alters perforant path synaptic plasticity and filtering and impairs dentate gyrus-mediated spatial discrimination.

Dysregulation of glutamatergic transmission and synaptic plasticity from the entorhinal cortex to the dentate gyrus has been demonstrated, which may explain the cellular dysregulations underlying the altered cognitive processing in the dentate gyrus associated with schizophrenia.