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Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been implicated in the maturation of GABAergic transmission(1). We demonstrated that neonatal rats implanted with BDNF-loaded Elvax slices over the vestibular nuclei showed an accelerated re-orientation of body against gravity. We hypothesized that this acceleration caused by BDNF is due to changes in the GABAergic transmission. To test this, long-term changes of inhibitory synaptic transmission were studied using whole-cell patch-clamp experiments in medial vestibular (MV) neurons of rats. We found that MV neurons exhibited inhibitory long-term depression (iLTD) and long-term potentiation (iLTP) of GABAA receptor-mediated signal transmission in early and late postnatal stages, respectively. In neonatal neurons, BDNF incubation could induce a slight reduction in GABA-mediated iLTD whereas at late postnatal neurons, iLTD, which is indicative of early developmental stages, could be re-induced with BDNF treatment. These results indicate that developmental acquisition of spatial orientation can be modified by BDNF-mediated refinement of neural networks in the vestibular nucleus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]