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Thalamocortical Synapses with the Somata of Parvalbumin Immuno‐Reactive Neurons
Author(s) -
White Edward L.,
Weinfeld Liza
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.5.a596-f
Subject(s) - parvalbumin , neuroscience , medium spiny neuron , biology , electrophysiology , synapse , cortex (anatomy) , thalamus , chemistry , central nervous system , basal ganglia
Electrophysiological studies indicate that parvalbumin (PV) containing neurons are fast spiking and strongly excited by thalamic afferents (Kawaguchi and Kabota, J. Neurophysiol 70 :, 1993 ; Beierlein et al. J. Neurophysiol 90 :, 2003 ; Swadlow , 25 :, 2003 ; Bruno and Simons, J. Neurosci . 22 :–10975 ; but see Porter et al., J. Neurosci 21 :, 2001). Presented here are initial results of a serial thin section analysis of synapses between degenerating thalamic afferents and PV‐labeled, non‐spiny neurons in lower layer IV of mouse PMBSF cortex in which lesion induced degeneration is reliable for synapse quantification. Roughly 20 % of the somal membrane was sectioned tangentially, unclear and excluded from analysis. Three PV‐labeled somata (2 mice) each received about 20 % of their asymmetrical synapses from thalamic afferents (ave. 20.75 %, SEM 1.7), placing them at the highest end of the wide range of values (approx. 1 to 21%) reported for thalamic synapses with dendrites of a variety of unlabeled, non‐spiny stellate cells (White, 1989). We suggest that the PV‐labeled subgroup of these cells are equivalent to the FS cells described by Sun et al. (J. Neuroscience 26:1219, 2006) that, strongly excited by thalamic afferents, go on to provide powerful feedforward inhibition of spiny stellate cells.