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Volume 16, Number 20,
Issue of October 15, 1996
pp. 6567-6578
Copyright ©1996 Society for Neuroscience
Properties of Convergent Thalamocortical and Intracortical
Synaptic Potentials in Single Neurons of Neocortex
Received May 21, 1996; revised July 8, 1996; accepted July 22, 1996.
Ziv Gil and
Yael Amitai
Department of Physiology, Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience,
Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel
84105
We explored differences in the properties of convergent afferent
inputs to single neurons in the barrel area of the neocortex.
Thalamocortical slices were prepared from mature mice. Recordings were
made from neurons in layer V, and either thalamocortical afferents or
horizontal intracortical axons were stimulated. Monosynaptic EPSPs from
both sources had latencies shorter than 1.8 msec and low shape
variance. Disynaptic thalamocortical IPSPs had latencies longer than
1.8 msec. All neuronal types, as defined by intrinsic firing patterns,
received both thalamocortical and intracortical monosynaptic input. The
shape parameters (rate of rise and half-width) of monosynaptic EPSPs
from the two inputs did not differ significantly. The rate of rise of
EPSPs varied considerably across cells, but the rates of rise of
thalamocortical and intracortical EPSPs onto single cells were strongly
correlated.
The relative thresholds for activation of synaptic excitation and
inhibition were strikingly different between the two tracts:
thalamocortical stimulation induced GABAA-dependent IPSPs
at stimulus intensities equal to or less than those required for
evoking EPSPs in 35% (24 of 68) of the cells. In contrast, the
threshold response to intracortical stimulation was always an EPSP, and
only stronger stimuli could generate di- or polysynaptic IPSPs.
We suggest that postsynaptic factors may tend to equalize the waveforms
of EPSPs from thalamocortical and intracortical synapses onto single
neurons. A major difference between the two convergent tracts is that
the thalamocortical pathway much more effectively activates feedforward
inhibitory circuits than does the horizontal intracortical pathway.
Key words:
barrel cortex;
thalamocortical synapses;
intracortical synapses;
local cortical circuit;
feedforward inhibition;
EPSPs;
slices
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