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Volume 17, Number 20,
Issue of October 15, 1997
pp. 7606-7625
Copyright ©1997 Society for Neuroscience
Estimating the Time Course of the Excitatory Synaptic Conductance
in Neocortical Pyramidal Cells Using a Novel Voltage Jump
Method
Received May 27, 1997; revised July 24, 1997; accepted July 28, 1997.
Michael Häusser1 and
Arnd Roth2
1 Laboratoire de Neurobiologie, Ecole Normale
Supérieure, 75005 Paris, France, and 2 Abteilung
Zellphysiologie, Max-Planck-Institut für Medizinische
Forschung, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
We introduce a method that permits faithful extraction of the decay
time course of the synaptic conductance independent of dendritic
geometry and the electrotonic location of the synapse. The method is
based on the experimental procedure of , consisting of a
series of identical somatic voltage jumps repeated at various times
relative to the onset of the synaptic conductance. The progression of
synaptic charge recovered by successive jumps has a characteristic
shape, which can be described by an analytical function consisting of
sums of exponentials. The voltage jump method was tested with
simulations using simple equivalent cylinder cable models as well as
detailed compartmental models of pyramidal cells. The decay time course
of the synaptic conductance could be estimated with high accuracy, even
with high series resistances, low membrane resistances, and
electrotonically remote, distributed synapses. The method also provides
the time course of the voltage change at the synapse in response to a
somatic voltage-clamp step and thus may be useful for constraining
compartmental models and estimating the relative electrotonic distance
of synapses. In conjunction with an estimate of the attenuation of
synaptic charge, the method also permits recovery of the amplitude of
the synaptic conductance. We use the method experimentally to determine
the decay time course of excitatory synaptic conductances in
neocortical pyramidal cells. The relatively rapid decay time constant
we have estimated ( ~1.7 msec at 35°C) has important
consequences for dendritic integration of synaptic input by these
neurons.
Key words:
neocortex;
pyramidal cell;
space clamp;
voltage clamp;
cable modeling;
synaptic current;
EPSC
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