1. The influence of age on striatal neuron Ca2+ physiology was studied through an analysis of intracellularly recorded Ca(2+)-mediated plateau potentials. In vitro brain slices from young and aged rats were treated with the K+ channel blocker tetraethylammonium (30 mM) to facilitate the expression of plateau potentials. A sample of neurons was also filled with biocytin and post hoc correlations were performed between morphology and physiology. 2. Testing of sampling parameters in neurons from young rats revealed that tetrodotoxin did not affect the amplitude or duration of plateau potentials. The membrane potential induced during plateau testing and the rate of plateau potential generation, however, had to be held constant because these variables affected plateau potential duration. 3. A significant age-related decrease was found in the duration of Ca(2+)-mediated plateau potentials that could not be explained by alterations in the activation or inactivation properties of the plateau potential. Investigation into relationships between cell morphology and plateau potential duration revealed a number of correlations. Soma size and dendritic length were correlated with plateau potential duration, independent of age (hierarchical regression), and an age-related decrease in dendritic length but not in soma size was found. Spine density and plateau potential duration were also correlated, but the significance depended on the variance associated with age. These data indicate that the extent of somadendritic membrane (including spines) affects plateau potential duration in striatal neurons and that dendrite and spine loss in aged animals may contribute to age-related decreases in plateau potential duration. 4. The response to replacement of Ca2+ with Ba2+ was age dependent, with Ba2+ causing a greater increase in the duration of plateau potentials in young neurons. These data rule out an increase in Ca(2+)-mediated inactivation of Ca2+ channels as a primary cause for the shortening of plateau potentials in aged neurons. Our morphological findings suggest that dendritic regression in aged neurons may have reduced the number of Ca2+ channels participating in plateau potential generation, but other mechanisms related to changes in the type of Ca2+ channel expressed and possible differences in their inactivation kinetics may also contribute to the age-related change in plateau potential duration.
Sinusoidally amplitude-modulated (SAM) noise was monaurally presented to the neotropical frog, Eleutherodactyl us coqui, while recording intracellularly from auditory-nerve fibers. Neuronal phase locking was measured to the SAM noise envelope in the form of a period histogram. The modulation depth was changed (in 10% steps) until the threshold modulation depth was determined. This was repeated for various modulation frequencies (20–1200 Hz) and different levels of SAM noise (34–64 dB/Hz). From these data, temporal modulation transfer functions (TMTFs) were produced and minimum integration time (MIT) for each auditory fiber was calculated. The median MIT was 0.42 ms (lower quartile 0.32, upper quartile 0.68 ms). A noise level-dependent effect was noted on the shape of the TMTF as well as the minimum integration time. The latter results may be explained as a loss in spectral resolution with increasing noise level, which is consistent with the correlation that was found between minimum integration time and bandwidth.
SUMMARY1. Synapse formation and synapse elimination were studied in the pectoral muscle of Xenopus laevis.2. Histology showed that fibres were not added during postmetamorphic growth. Most fibres were innervated at two widely separated junctions and this number did not change as frogs grew.3. Intracellular recording revealed that fibres with two junctions could be mononeuronally innervated, or innervated in one of three different polyneuronal patterns. A growth-related shift in innervation pattern was observed, with the polyneuronal patterns replaced by mononeuronal innervation.4. Endplate potentials (EPPs) evoked by low-frequency nerve stimulation were simultaneously measured at both junctions on individual fibres. For each fibre, the ratio of EPP amplitudes (smaller/larger) was calculated. When the two junctions were innervated by different motoneurones (A-B), the median EPP ratio was smaller than when the two junctions were innervated by the same motoneurone (A-A), although the difference was not significant. 5. The difference in the ratio of EPP amplitudes became significant, however, if junctions were conditioned by a train of fifty stimuli at 10 Hz. Immediately after such a train, EPP ratios for A-B fibres were significantly smaller than ratios for A-A fibres. This difference was due to greater synaptic depression at one of the junctions on A-B fibres.6. We concluded that enhanced depression of the EPP upon repetitive stimulation is a physiological correlate of the competition that underlies synapse elimination.
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