Abstract
Sound features are blended together en route to the central nervous system before being discriminated for further processing by the cortical synaptic network. The mechanisms underlying this synaptic processing, however, are largely unexplored. Intracortical processing of the auditory signal was investigated by simultaneously recording from pairs of connected principal neurons in layer II/III in slices from A1 auditory cortex. Physiological patterns of stimulation in the presynaptic cell revealed two populations of postsynaptic events that differed in mean amplitude, failure rate, kinetics and short-term plasticity. In contrast, transmission between layer II/III pyramidal neurons in barrel cortex were uniformly of large amplitude and high success (release) probability (Pr). These unique features of auditory cortical transmission may provide two distinct mechanisms for discerning and separating transient from stationary features of the auditory signal at an early stage of cortical processing.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Action Potentials / drug effects
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Action Potentials / physiology
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Animals
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Auditory Cortex / cytology
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Auditory Cortex / drug effects
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Auditory Cortex / physiology*
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Auditory Pathways / cytology
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Auditory Pathways / drug effects
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Auditory Pathways / physiology*
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Auditory Perception / drug effects
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Auditory Perception / physiology*
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Calcium / metabolism
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Calcium / pharmacology
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Electric Stimulation
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Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists / pharmacology
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Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / drug effects
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Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / physiology
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Lysine / analogs & derivatives*
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Male
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Mice
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Mice, Inbred C57BL
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Nerve Net / cytology
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Nerve Net / drug effects
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Nerve Net / physiology*
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Neural Inhibition / drug effects
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Neural Inhibition / physiology
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Neuronal Plasticity / drug effects
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Neuronal Plasticity / physiology
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Neurons / cytology
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Neurons / drug effects
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Neurons / physiology*
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Pyramidal Cells / drug effects
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Pyramidal Cells / physiology
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Reaction Time / drug effects
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Reaction Time / physiology
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Receptors, AMPA / antagonists & inhibitors
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Receptors, AMPA / metabolism
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Somatosensory Cortex / cytology
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Somatosensory Cortex / drug effects
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Somatosensory Cortex / physiology
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Synapses / drug effects
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Synapses / physiology*
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Synaptic Transmission / drug effects
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Synaptic Transmission / physiology*
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Time Factors
Substances
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Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists
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Receptors, AMPA
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biocytin
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Lysine
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Calcium