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Volume 16, Number 15,
Issue of August 1, 1996
pp. 4684-4695
Copyright ©1996 Society for Neuroscience
Functional GABAergic Synaptic Connection in Neonatal Mouse Barrel
Cortex
Received Feb. 23, 1996; revised May 7, 1996; accepted May 13, 1996.
Ariel Agmon1,
Greg Hollrigel1, and
Diane K. O'Dowd1, 2
Departments of 1 Anatomy and Neurobiology and
2 Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California,
Irvine, California 92717
Intracortical inhibition is crucial to proper functioning of the
mature neocortex, yet, paradoxically, is reported to be rare or absent
in the neonatal animal. We reexamined this issue by recording
whole-cell postsynaptic currents (PSCs) of barrel cortex neurons in
thalamocortical brain slices from neonatal mice. Monosynaptic,
excitatory thalamocortical responses were elicited in layers V/VI
neurons as early as postnatal day 0 (P0, the first 24 hr after birth)
and in presumptive layer IV as early as P2. At very low stimulation
frequencies, the monosynaptic response was invariably followed by a
prolonged (up to 1 sec) synaptic barrage, which fatigued at stimulus
repetition rates of 2/min or higher. This barrage consisted of
postsynaptic responses to spiking activity in neighboring cortical
cells, because (1) it could also be evoked by intracortical stimulation
in coronal slices and (2) it was abolished by antagonists to NMDA
receptors (NMDARs), even when NMDARs on the recorded cell were under a
voltage-dependent block. Some of the larger polysynaptic events changed
polarity at a negative reversal potential and were blocked by
GABAA receptor (GABAAR)
antagonists, with a concurrent enhancement of the extracellular field
potential, indicating that they were GABAAR-
mediated, Cl-dependent inhibitory PSCs (IPSCs). We conclude that a
network of functional intracortical
GABAAR-mediated synaptic connections exists from
the earliest postnatal ages, although it gives rise to responses that
differ from mature IPSCs in reversal potential and latency.
Key words:
GABA synapses;
synaptic inhibition;
postnatal
development;
barrel cortex;
whole-cell recording;
synaptic fatigue
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