Locally Synchronized Synaptic Inputs

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1210362
• Publication Date: 2012-01-19T19:12:54Z
• Authors: Naoya Takahashi; Kazuo Kitamura; Naoki Matsuo; Mark Mayford; Masanobu Kano; Norio Matsuki; Yuji Ikegaya
• Keywords: 0303 health sciences; Neuronal Plasticity; Patch-Clamp Techniques; Dendritic Spines; Pyramidal Cells; Action Potentials; Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials; Mice, Transgenic; Somatosensory Cortex; CA3 Region, Hippocampal; Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; Rats; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; Organ Culture Techniques; Synapses; Animals; Calcium; Nerve Net; Rats, Wistar

Coordinating Synapses

Cortical microcircuits produce cell assemblies that emit spatiotemporally orchestrated spiking activity. These activity patterns are decoded by the dendrites of downstream neurons. Whether synaptic inputs are clustered or dispersed over target dendrites at a given time is critical for determining dendritic computational power. However, such subcellular dynamics are poorly understood. In rodent organotypic slice cultures,

Takahashi et al.

(p. 353 ) found that dendritic spine activities were frequently synchronized within a group of spines in the immediate vicinity of one another. This local synchronization seems to reflect convergent synaptic inputs from intrinsically synchronized presynaptic neuron populations.