Faculty Bibliography

Responses to GABA were recorded from 87 neurons of rat visual cortical slices. Pyramidal and nonpyramidal cells were identified by intracellular dye injection, and their responses were compared. All identified pyramidal and nonpyramidal cells, as well as unstained cells, responded to GABA ejected from a pipette that was positioned within 300 micron of the soma. Their responses were similar, regardless of their morphology. In addition, GABA responses of visual cortical neurons could not be distinguished from those of other areas of the neocortex, or pyramidal cells in area CA1 of hippocampus. Depending on the site of application, there appeared to be two types of GABA responses that were present in all cells. The first was generated by application of GABA to the soma (GABAs response; mean reversal potential = -71.7 mV). The second occurred when GABA was applied on dendrites (GABAD response; mean reversal potential = -49.3 mV). When GABA was ejected on proximal dendritic regions, both responses could be observed in combination. Both GABAs and GABAD responses were accompanied by extremely large increases in conductance. In some cells, a third type of GABA response was elicited following somatic or dendritic GABA application. This response was a relatively small-amplitude, long-lasting hyperpolarization which followed a GABAS and GABAD response (late hyperpolarization, mean reversal potential = -79.8 mV)

The effects of pressure-applied gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) on the soma and dendrites of pyramidal and non-pyramidal neurons of rat visual cortical slices were recorded intracellularly. When applied close to the soma, GABA produced hyperpolarizations and depolarizations, but when GABA was applied more than 250 microns from the soma only depolarizations were recorded. The results suggest that most visual cortical cells respond to GABA and that the responses of pyramidal and non-pyramidal cells to GABA are similar

Long-term potentiation is a long-lasting enhancement of synaptic efficacy following brief, high-frequency, repetitive stimulation of a monosynaptic input. Intracellular recordings have shown that the inhibitory postsynaptic potential changes in amplitude during long-term potentiation. Yet how this may occur is unclear. To test for a possible alteration in postsynaptic sensitivity to the recurrent inhibitory transmitter gamma-aminobutyrate, we have examined the effect of gamma-aminobutyrate, focally applied to the hippocampal CA1 cell-body layer, on the extracellular recorded action potential (population spike). We found that the degree, duration, dose-dependence and time-course of inhibition produced by gamma-aminobutyrate are unchanged during long-term potentiation. This suggests that a change in sensitivity of CA1 pyramidal cells to the transmitter gamma-aminobutyrate is not the reason for the alteration in the inhibitory postsynaptic potential during long-term potentiation

Long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampus is a long lasting enhancement of the postsynaptic evoked response following high frequency, repetitive stimulation of afferents. The extracellularly recorded action potential (population spike) can be reversibly blocked, without affecting the extracellularly recorded excitatory postsynaptic potential, by focal application of gamma-aminobutyric acid, tetrodotoxin, or pentobarbital, to the CA1 pyramidal cells of the hippocampal slice. When the population spike is blocked during repetitive stimulation, LTP does not occur. It appears that postsynaptic firing of action potentials during repetitive stimulation is necessary to produce LTP