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Properties of spontaneous and miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents in neurons of the rat prefrontal cortex

  • Comparative and Ontogenic Physiology
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Abstract

Quantum analysis of postsynaptic currents is important for fundamental and applied studies of synaptic transmission and plasticity. In the present work, we investigated the possibility of using the characteristics of spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) for estimation of quantum parameters of excitatory synaptic transmission in different types of neurons from rat prefrontal cortex slices. By blocking spontaneous spiking activity in slices by tetrodotoxin, we showed that spontaneous and miniature EPSCs in the prefrontal cortex neurons did not differ in their properties. Therefore, both spontaneous and miniature responses can be used for estimation of quantum parameters of excitatory synaptic transmission in this preparation. We also revealed that excitatory spontaneous responses of pyramidal cells were two times lower by amplitude, had a twice lower coefficient of variation and exhibited much slower kinetics than responses of the fast-spiking and regular-spiking interneurons. Possible mechanisms of these differences are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia

    S. L. Malkin, K. Kh. Kim, D. B. Tikhonov & A. V. Zaitsev

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  1. S. L. Malkin
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  2. K. Kh. Kim
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  3. D. B. Tikhonov
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  4. A. V. Zaitsev
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Correspondence to A. V. Zaitsev.

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Original Russian Text © S.L. Malkin, K.Kh. Kim, D.B. Tikhonov, A.V. Zaitsev, 2014, published in Zhurnal Evolyutsionnoi Biokhimii i Fiziologii, 2014, Vol. 50, No. 6, pp. 440–446.

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Malkin, S.L., Kim, K.K., Tikhonov, D.B. et al. Properties of spontaneous and miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents in neurons of the rat prefrontal cortex. J Evol Biochem Phys 50, 506–514 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0022093014060052

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0022093014060052

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