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The Journal of Neuroscience, December 3, 2008, 28(49):13320-13330; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2646-08.2008

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Shift in the Balance between Excitation and Inhibition during Sensory Adaptation of S1 Neurons

Jaime E. Heiss, ^* Yonatan Katz, ^* Elad Ganmor, and Ilan Lampl

Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Ilan Lampl, Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel. Email: ilan.lampl{at}weizmann.ac.il

Sustained stimulation of sensory organs results in adaptation of the neuronal response along the sensory pathway. Whether or not cortical adaptation affects equally excitation and inhibition is poorly understood. We examined this question using patch recordings of neurons in the barrel cortex of anesthetized rats while repetitively stimulating the principal whisker. We found that inhibition adapts more than excitation, causing the balance between them to shift toward excitation. A comparison of the latency of thalamic firing and evoked excitation and inhibition in the cortex strongly suggests that adaptation of inhibition results mostly from depression of inhibitory synapses rather than adaptation in the firing of inhibitory cells. The differential adaptation of the evoked conductances that shifts the balance toward excitation may act as a gain mechanism which enhances the subthreshold response during sustained stimulation, despite a large reduction in excitation.

Key words: barrel cortex; sensory adaptation; layer 4; conductance measurement; intracellular recordings in vivo; inhibition

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Received June 10, 2008; revised Oct. 23, 2008; accepted Oct. 27, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Ilan Lampl, Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel. Email: ilan.lampl{at}weizmann.ac.il

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