Compartment-specific projection patterns onto pyramidal cells in rat neocortex

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Event Abstract Back to Event Compartment-specific projection patterns onto pyramidal cells in rat neocortex Mihael Zohar1, 2*, Philipp Schnepel1, 2, Ad Aertsen1, 2 and Clemens Boucsein1, 2 1 University of Freiburg, Neurobiology and Biophysics, Germany 2 University of Freiburg, Bernstein Center Freiburg, Germany Pyramidal neurons in layer V of the neocortex constitute a major output population of the cortical network. Due to their good accessibility and their intricate morphology, showing a prominent apical dendrite spanning all cortical layers and terminating in an expanded tuft, these cells have been utilized to characterize general principles of cellular physiology of cortical pyramidal cells. In particular, it has been shown that the apical dendrite and the soma undergo functional decoupling during maturation, resulting in a strong attenuation of EPSP’s arising from synapses located on the distal apical dendrite on their way to the soma. Furthermore, it was shown that apical dendrites of large layer V neurons are capable of active potential generation, such as Calcium- and NMDA-spikes. While connectivity of the somata was, up to now, extensively examined with anatomical, paired recording and photo stimulation methods, little is known about which populations of neurons project to the distal dendrite and are, thus, mainly involved in the generation of active potentials in the distal dendrite. Here we used an experimental approach employing simultaneous distal dendritic and somatic patch-clamp recordings in vitro together with presynaptic glutamate uncaging to examine the properties and layer-dependent projection patterns onto the two compartments of layer V pyramidal neurons within the rat somatosensory cortex. With this new combination of methods we were able to detect inputs from presynaptic neurons with a lateral distance of more than 1mm in acute brain slices and to compare the functional input maps from soma and apical dendrite. As reported previously, a substantial fraction of connections gave rise to EPSP’s which underwent a strong attenuation along the apical dendrite and were hardly detectable at the soma. Surprisingly, however, the functional maps derived from dendritic vs. somatic recordings showed considerable differences in the layer in which the somata of the presynaptic neurons were located. While we could confirm the established projection patterns onto the soma, originating from cells in layers II/III, V and VI, the presynaptic neurons projecting onto the distal dendrite predominantly originate from supragranular layers. These compartment-specific projection patterns onto layer V pyramidal neurons point to a distributed integration of inputs coming from different cortical layers. These findings may help to further understand the role of dendritic integration in large layer V pyramidal cells, in particular the nonlinear mechanisms in the distal dendrite and the presynaptic populations involved in their generation. Acknowledgements This project received funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Grants 01GQ0420 to BCCN Freiburg and 01GQ0830 to BFNT Freiburg-Tübingen) and from the German Research Council (DFG-SFB 780). Keywords: compartment, connectivity, Dendrite, Neurons, networks and dynamical systems, photo stimulation Conference: BC11 : Computational Neuroscience & Neurotechnology Bernstein Conference & Neurex Annual Meeting 2011, Freiburg, Germany, 4 Oct - 6 Oct, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: neurons, networks and dynamical systems (please use "neurons, networks and dynamical systems" as keywords) Citation: Zohar M, Schnepel P, Aertsen A and Boucsein C (2011). Compartment-specific projection patterns onto pyramidal cells in rat neocortex. Front. Comput. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: BC11 : Computational Neuroscience & Neurotechnology Bernstein Conference & Neurex Annual Meeting 2011. doi: 10.3389/conf.fncom.2011.53.00127 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 23 Aug 2011; Published Online: 04 Oct 2011. * Correspondence: Mr. Mihael Zohar, University of Freiburg, Neurobiology and Biophysics, Freiburg, Germany, mihael.zohar@biologie.uni-freiburg.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Mihael Zohar Philipp Schnepel Ad Aertsen Clemens Boucsein Google Mihael Zohar Philipp Schnepel Ad Aertsen Clemens Boucsein Google Scholar Mihael Zohar Philipp Schnepel Ad Aertsen Clemens Boucsein PubMed Mihael Zohar Philipp Schnepel Ad Aertsen Clemens Boucsein Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.