GAP JUNCTIONS BETWEEN DENDRITES AND SOMATA OF NEURONS IN PRIMATE SENSORI-MOTOR CORTEX

Gap junctions have been found infrequently between two dendrites or a dendrite and a cell soma in the deep layers of both the motor and somatic sensory cortices of the primate. At these junctions the outer leaflets of the plasma membranes of both profiles are intimately apposed with a gap of 2 nm between them which shows a structure of hexagonal subunits in tangential sections. These gap junctions occur mainly between the dendrites or dendrites and somata of large stellate cells but are also associated in some examples with a dendro-dendritic synapse and thus occur between large stellate dendrites and presynaptic dendrites; a desmosome may also occur in association with a gap junction and dendro-dendritic synapse. Gap junctions have been identified as sites of electrical transmission between cells in a number of sites and it is therefore suggested that some neurons in the sensori-motor cortex are electrotonically coupled.