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Volume 16, Number 23, Issue of December 1, 1996 pp. 7757-7767
Copyright ©1996 Society for Neuroscience

Synaptic Interactions between Primate Precentral Cortex Neurons Revealed by Spike-Triggered Averaging of Intracellular Membrane Potentials In Vivo

Received Jan. 16, 1996; revised Sept. 12, 1996; accepted Sept. 16, 1996.

Michikazu Matsumura¹, Dao-fen Chen², Toshiyuki Sawaguchi¹, Kisou Kubota¹, and Eberhard E. Fetz²

¹ Department of Neurophysiology, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kanrin, Inuyama, Aichi 484, Japan, and ² Department of Physiology and Biophysics and Regional Primate Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-7290

To document synaptic interactions between neurons in the precentral cortex of macaque monkeys, we recorded in vivo the intracellular (IC) membrane potentials of cortical neurons simultaneously with extracellular (EC) action potentials of neighboring cells. The synaptic potentials correlated with EC spikes were obtained by spike-triggered averages (STA) of the IC membrane potentials for 373 cell pairs recorded in anesthetized and awake behaving monkeys. Sixty-three STAs (17%) showed excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs), beginning after the trigger spike. Pure EPSPs had onset latencies of 0.9 ± 0.7 msec (mean ± SD) and amplitudes of 226 ± 130 µV. Sixteen STAs (4%) showed postspike inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (IPSPs), with onset latencies of 0.4 ± 0.4 msec and amplitudes of 274 ± 188 µV. The most common waveform, observed in 82% of the STAs with features, was a broad depolarization straddling the trigger spikes, reflecting synchronized synaptic input to both IC and EC neurons. These average synchronous excitation potentials (ASEPs) began 14.3 ± 6.6 msec before the trigger spike and had amplitudes of 1064 ± 867 µV. Twenty-three STAs (6%) showed an average synchronous inhibitory potential (ASIP): a hyperpolarization beginning before the trigger spike and reflecting IPSPs produced by a group of local inhibitory cells synchronized with the trigger cell. ASIPs had an onset latency of 5.5 ± 2.7 msec and amplitude of 589 ± 502 µV. Combinations of synchronous and postspike potentials were also observed. Successive recordings provided examples of convergent and divergent connections between EC and IC cells. Neuron pairs with depolarizing postsynaptic potentials (PSPs) in the STA yielded peaks in the cross-correlograms of the IC and EC action potentials; the peak area was proportional to the amplitude of the PSP. These data suggest that a significantly larger proportion of cortical neurons interact through synchronous activity than through simple serial interactions; moreover, synchronous excitation affected more widely separated cell pairs than EPSPs and IPSPs, which were seen most often among the closest cells.

Key words: synaptic interactions; spike-triggered average; synaptic potentials; precentral cortex; primate; synchrony

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