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The Journal of Neuroscience, November 15, 2000, 20(22):8238-8246
Backpropagation of Physiological Spike Trains in Neocortical
Pyramidal Neurons: Implications for Temporal Coding in Dendrites
Stephen R.
Williams and
Greg J.
Stuart
Division of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research,
Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capitol
Territory 0200, Australia
In vivo neocortical neurons fire apparently random
trains of action potentials in response to sensory stimuli. Does this
randomness represent a signal or noise around a mean firing rate? Here
we use the timing of action potential trains recorded in
vivo to explore the dendritic consequences of physiological
patterns of action potential firing in neocortical pyramidal neurons
in vitro. We find that action potentials evoked by
physiological patterns of firing backpropagate threefold to fourfold
more effectively into the distal apical dendrites (>600 µm from the
soma) than action potential trains reflecting their mean firing rate.
This amplification of backpropagation was maximal during high-frequency components of physiological spike trains (80-300 Hz). The disparity between backpropagation during physiological and mean firing patterns was dramatically reduced by dendritic hyperpolarization. Consistent with this voltage dependence, dendritic depolarization amplified single
action potentials by fourfold to sevenfold, with a spatial profile
strikingly similar to the amplification of physiological spike trains.
Local blockade of distal dendritic sodium channels substantially
reduced amplification of physiological spike trains, but did not
significantly alter action potential trains reflecting their mean
firing rate. Dendritic electrogenesis during physiological spike trains
was also reduced by the blockade of calcium channels. We conclude that
amplification of backpropagating action potentials during physiological
spike trains is mediated by frequency-dependent supralinear temporal
summation, generated by the recruitment of distal dendritic sodium and
calcium channels. Together these data indicate that the temporal nature
of physiological patterns of action potential firing contains a signal
that is transmitted effectively throughout the dendritic tree.
Key words:
sodium channel; patch clamp; action potential; neocortex; dendrite; firing pattern
Copyright © 2000 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/00/20228238-09$05.00/0
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