Layer and frequency dependencies of phase response properties of pyramidal neurons in rat motor cortex

被引:79
作者
Tsubo, Yasuhiro
Takada, Masahiko
Reyes, Alex D.
Fukai, Tomoki
机构
[1] RIKEN Brain Sci Inst, Lab Neural Circuit Theory, Wako, Saitama 3510198, Japan
[2] Tokyo Metropolitan Org Med Res, Tokyo Metropolitan Inst Neurosci, Dept Syst Neurosci, Fuchu, Tokyo 1838526, Japan
[3] NYU, Ctr Neural Sci, New York, NY 10003 USA
关键词
gamma oscillation; intrinsic property; local circuit; synchronization;
D O I
10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05579.x
中图分类号
Q189 [神经科学];
学科分类号
071006 ;
摘要
It is postulated that synchronous firing of cortical neurons plays an active role in cognitive functions of the brain. An important issue is whether pyramidal neurons in different cortical layers exhibit similar tendencies to synchronise. To address this issue, we performed intracellular and whole-cell recordings of regular-spiking pyramidal neurons in slice preparations of the rat motor cortex (18-45 days old) and analysed the phase response curves of these pyramidal neurons in layers 2/3 and 5. The phase response curve represents how an external stimulus affects the timing of spikes immediately after the stimulus in repetitively firing neurons. The phase response curve can be classified into two categories, type 1 (the spike is always advanced) and type 2 (the spike is advanced or delayed depending on the stimulus phase), and are important determinants of whether or not rhythmic synchronization of neuron pairs occurs. We found that pyramidal neurons in layer 2/3 tend to display type-2 phase response curves whereas those in layer 5 tend to exhibit type-1 phase response curves. The differences were prominent particularly in the gamma-frequency range (20-45 Hz). Our results imply that the layer-2/3 pyramidal neurons, when coupled mutually through fast excitatory synapses, may exhibit a much stronger tendency for rhythmic synchronization than layer-5 neurons in the gamma-frequency range.
引用
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页码:3429 / 3441
页数:13
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