Developmental trajectories of prefrontal cortical circuits

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Developmental trajectories of prefrontal cortical circuits David Lewis1* 1 University of Pittsburgh, United States The maturation of behaviors dependent on prefrontal cortical circuitry in primates is protracted and complex, and is associated with substantial refinements in both structural and functional markers of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission. For example, the levels of pre-synaptic (e.g., GABA membrane transporter) and post-(e.g., GABA-A receptor subunits) synaptic proteins that regulate GABA neurotransmission from chandelier GABA neurons to the axon initial segment (AIS) of pyramidal neurons undergo marked changes perinatally and during adolescence. Furthermore, proteins that are involved in regulating synapse structure and receptor localization at the AIS (e.g., ankyrin-G, ßIV spectrin, and gephyrin) exhibit distinct developmental trajectories, with different types of changes occurring perinatally and during adolescence. In concert with other data, these findings reveal a two-phase developmental process of GABA synaptic stability and neurotransmission at chandelier cell inputs to pyramidal neurons that might contribute to the protracted maturation of cognitive processes dependent on prefrontal circuitry. Consistent with these observations, the expression of GABA-A receptor α1 and α2 subunits, which confer different functional properties to GABA-A receptors progressively increase and decrease, respectively, throughout postnatal development including adolescence. Furthermore, as predicted by the different functional properties of α1-containing versus α2-containing GABA-A receptors, the duration of inhibitory currents was significantly shorter in post-pubertal than in pre-pubertal animals. Thus, the developmental shift in GABA-A receptor α subunit expression continues through adolescence, inducing a marked change in the kinetics of GABA neurotransmission. In contrast, the functional maturation of excitatory synapses to pyramidal neurons appears to be complete prior to adolescence, although the number of these synapses is substantially reduced during adolescence. Together these findings support a complex process of circuit maturation in the primate prefrontal cortex, suggesting that different components of these circuits have specific sensitive periods when they may be more liable to disruption from environmental exposures or to enrichment from experience. Conference: The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes, Toronto, Canada, 22 Mar - 26 Mar, 2010. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Citation: Lewis D (2010). Developmental trajectories of prefrontal cortical circuits. Conference Abstract: The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.14.00002 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: 24 Jun 2010; Published Online: 24 Jun 2010. * Correspondence: David Lewis, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, United States, lewisda@upmc.edu 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 David Lewis Google David Lewis Google Scholar David Lewis PubMed David Lewis 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.