Ras, part of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway, is a critical protein involved in transmitting extracellular signals. Expression of the active RasG12V mutation in mice results in enhanced hippocampal-dependent learning and LTP at Schaffer collateral synapses (SFN 2002 abstract # 779.9). In order to investigate potential morphological correlates of these behavioural and electrophysiological enhancements, the dendritic structure of CA1 neurons have investigated. The hippocampi of 6 H-RASG12V and 6 wild-type controls were processed with rapid Golgi, and ten fully impregnated cells were randomly chosen for analysis. This analysis included drawing total dendritic arbours at 250x using a Camera Lucida, and quantifying spine density and morphology (i.e., sessile, pedunculated, branched, etc.) at 100x under oil immersion. Data revealed that, despite profound behavioural and electrophysiological enhancements, the vast majority of measures taken showed no differences between H-RASG12V mice and wild-type l...