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Featured ArticleArticles, Cellular/Molecular

Connectivity Patterns Revealed by Mapping of Active Inputs on Dendrites of Thalamorecipient Neurons in the Auditory Cortex

Robert J. Richardson, Jay A. Blundon, Ildar T. Bayazitov and Stanislav S. Zakharenko
Journal of Neuroscience 20 May 2009, 29 (20) 6406-6417; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0258-09.2009
Robert J. Richardson
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Jay A. Blundon
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Ildar T. Bayazitov
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Stanislav S. Zakharenko
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Abstract

Despite being substantially outnumbered by intracortical inputs on thalamorecipient neurons, thalamocortical projections efficiently deliver acoustic information to the auditory cortex. We hypothesized that thalamic projections may achieve effectiveness by forming synapses at optimal locations on dendritic trees of cortical neurons. Using two-photon calcium imaging in dendritic spines, we constructed maps of active thalamic and intracortical inputs on dendritic trees of thalamorecipient cortical neurons in mouse thalamocortical slices. These maps revealed that thalamic projections synapse preferentially on stubby dendritic spines within 100 μm of the soma, whereas the locations and morphology of spines that receive intracortical projections have a less-defined pattern. Using two-photon photolysis of caged glutamate, we found that activation of stubby dendritic spines located perisomatically generated larger postsynaptic potentials in the soma of thalamorecipient neurons than did activation of remote dendritic spines or spines of other morphological types. These results suggest a novel mechanism of reliability of thalamic projections: the positioning of crucial afferent inputs at optimal synaptic locations.

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The Journal of Neuroscience: 29 (20)
Journal of Neuroscience
Vol. 29, Issue 20
20 May 2009
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Connectivity Patterns Revealed by Mapping of Active Inputs on Dendrites of Thalamorecipient Neurons in the Auditory Cortex
Robert J. Richardson, Jay A. Blundon, Ildar T. Bayazitov, Stanislav S. Zakharenko
Journal of Neuroscience 20 May 2009, 29 (20) 6406-6417; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0258-09.2009

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Connectivity Patterns Revealed by Mapping of Active Inputs on Dendrites of Thalamorecipient Neurons in the Auditory Cortex
Robert J. Richardson, Jay A. Blundon, Ildar T. Bayazitov, Stanislav S. Zakharenko
Journal of Neuroscience 20 May 2009, 29 (20) 6406-6417; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0258-09.2009
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  • Are synapses revealed by EM only 'putative'?
    Kevan AC Martin
    Published on: 25 May 2009
  • Published on: (25 May 2009)
    Page navigation anchor for Are synapses revealed by EM only 'putative'?
    Are synapses revealed by EM only 'putative'?
    • Kevan AC Martin, Professor

    Imagine my surprise on reading the Introduction to the interesting paper by Robert Richardson and colleagues to discover that our painstaking efforts to map cortical dendrites by serial electron microscopy had revealed only "putative synapses" (p. 6407). In case readers don’t understand what is meant here by "putative", they are reminded in the very next sentence that "proximity between axon terminal and dendritic spine d...

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    Imagine my surprise on reading the Introduction to the interesting paper by Robert Richardson and colleagues to discover that our painstaking efforts to map cortical dendrites by serial electron microscopy had revealed only "putative synapses" (p. 6407). In case readers don’t understand what is meant here by "putative", they are reminded in the very next sentence that "proximity between axon terminal and dendritic spine does not guarantee that a site is an active, functional synapse".

    The synapses I and my colleagues, and many others, have mapped through electron microscopy, were not classified as synapses by "proximity", but by long-established ultrastructural criteria, which journal editors and referees have rightly demanded as the gold-standard for structural evidence of the presence of a synapse. Indeed a worldwide movement is now dedicated to obtaining synaptic resolution maps of brain circuits through dense reconstruction by electron microscopy. If the synapses they reveal are to be downgraded to "putative", they could certainly save themselves a lot of effort by simply looking for "proximity" at light microscope level.

    Show Less
    Competing Interests: None declared.

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