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The Journal of Neuroscience, December 14, 2005, 25(50):11504-11512; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2466-05.2005

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Cellular/Molecular
Short-Term Regulation of Information Processing at the Corticoaccumbens Synapse

Guillaume Casassus, Christophe Blanchet, and Christophe Mulle

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5091, Institut François Magendie, Université Victor Segalen-Bordeaux II, 33077 Bordeaux, France

In relation to expectation and delivery of reward, pyramidal neurons of the prefrontal cortex either switch from a single spiking mode to transient phasic bursting, or gradually increase their sustained tonic activity. Here, we examined how switching between firing modes affects information processing at the corticoaccumbens synapse. We report that increasing presynaptic firing frequency in a tonic manner either depresses or facilitates synaptic transmission, depending on initial probability of release. In contrast, repeated bursts of stimulation of cortical afferents trigger a new form of short-term potentiation of synaptic transmission (RB-STP) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). RB-STP involves the regulation of axonal excitability mediated by 4-AP-sensitive potassium channels in afferent cortical neurons. Thus, in a tonic mode, information flow is tightly controlled by regulatory mechanisms at the level of presynaptic terminals, whereas switching to a bursting mode reliably enhances efficacy of information processing for all cortical afferents to NAc neurons.

Key words: nucleus accumbens; short-term synaptic plasticity; presynaptic; glutamate; K+ channels; axonal excitability

Received Nov 10, 2004; revised October 21, 2005; accepted October 21, 2005.






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