Dependence of EPSP Efficacy on Synapse Location in Neocortical Pyramidal Neurons
Neurons receive thousands of synaptic inputs throughout elaborate dendritic trees. Here we determine the somatic impact of excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EP-SPs) generated at known dendritic sites in neocortical pyramidal neurons. As inputs became more distal, somatic EPSP amplitude decreased,...
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Published in | Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 295; no. 5561; pp. 1907 - 1910 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Washington, DC
American Society for the Advancement of Science
08.03.2002
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Neurons receive thousands of synaptic inputs throughout elaborate dendritic trees. Here we determine the somatic impact of excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EP-SPs) generated at known dendritic sites in neocortical pyramidal neurons. As inputs became more distal, somatic EPSP amplitude decreased, whereas use-dependent depression increased. Despite marked attenuation (>40-fold), when coactivated within a narrow time window (∼10 milliseconds), distal EPSPs could directly influence action potential output following dendritic spike generation. These findings reveal that distal EPSPs are ineffective sources of background somatic excitation, but through coincidence detection have a powerful transient signaling role. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0036-8075 1095-9203 |
DOI: | 10.1126/science.1067903 |