RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Heterogeneity of Synaptic Plasticity at Unitary CA3–CA1 and CA3–CA3 Connections in Rat Hippocampal Slice Cultures
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 10664
OP 10671
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.19-24-10664.1999
VO 19
IS 24
A1 Debanne, Dominique
A1 Gähwiler, Beat H.
A1 Thompson, Scott M.
YR 1999
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/19/24/10664.abstract
AB Long-term potentiation (LTP) of unitary EPSPs, generated by pairs of monosynaptically connected CA3 and CA1 pyramidal cells, was compared with LTP of extracellularly evoked, multi-unitary EPSPs in rat hippocampal slice cultures. LTP was induced by repeated, synchronous pairing of low-frequency presynaptic and postsynaptic activity. Three differences were observed. First, LTP of multi-unitary EPSPs displayed two phases: transient (<5 min) and sustained. Potentiation of unitary EPSPs displayed both phases in 42% of experiments; the remainder showed sustained potentiation only. Unitary EPSPs displaying transient-sustained and only sustained potentiation could be recorded from single postsynaptic cells, indicating that excitatory synapses on a given cell are heterogeneous with respect to short-term plasticity. Second, whereas LTP of multi-unitary EPSPs never resulted in greater than twofold increases in amplitude (mean potentiation of 175% of control), maximal LTP of unitary EPSPs was as great as 13-fold (mean potentiation of 250%). Third, LTP could not be induced in 24% of unitary EPSPs. We provide here the first evidence for the coexistence of potentiatable and nonpotentiatable synapses on individual postsynaptic neurons. Thirty-seven percent of connections not displaying LTP exhibited long-term depression (LTD), suggesting that the connections were already maximally potentiated. In the remaining 63% of these pairs, neither LTP nor LTD could be induced, despite the existence of a pharmacologically identified, NMDA receptor-mediated EPSP component. In conclusion, there is considerable heterogeneity in the amplitude and time course of LTP expression at different synaptic connections. A substantial proportion of apparently nonplastic synapses probably accounts for the weaker potentiation displayed by compound EPSPs.