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Query: UNIPROT:P50583 (asymmetrical)
 12,197 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The axonal endings formed on the somata of neurons in the brainstem auditory nucleus magnocellularis (NM) were measured and classified in thin-sectioned material from adult chickens. Degeneration of primary endings after destruction of the basilar papilla and labeling of cochlear nerve fibers by injection of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) into the inner ear were used to determine which ending types arise from the cochlear ganglion. About 60% of the perikaryal surface is apposed by primary type terminals. These primary endbulbs are characterized by round clear synaptic vesicles distributed at an average density of 63 vesicles/micrometers 2 and a number of small, punctate, highly asymmetrical synaptic contacts. The primary type is the only class of endings which disappears after destruction of the basilar papilla and which is consistently labeled after HRP injections into the ear. These endings probably account for the "fast" EPSP seen in NM during stimulation of the cochlear nerve. NM neurons receive two types of nonprimary ending. About 13% of the perikaryal surface is apposed by a morphologically homogeneous class of small "symmetrical" endings; these are characterized by a flattened rhomboidal shape, numerous mitochondria, frequent coated vesicles, and small round or ovoid synaptic vesicles at an average density of 165 vesicles/micrometers 2. Most of the length of the apposition between ending and cell body is occupied by a synaptic complex with thin symmetrical presynaptic and postsynaptic densities. These endings were frequently found on short somatic processes. The second nonprimary axosomatic ending type in NM is most easily identified in experimental material; these endings occupy about 5% of the cell surface area and have a distinctly rounded profile in cross section. These endings typically exhibit clear round synaptic vesicles at a density of 111 vesicles/micrometers 2 arrayed before synaptic contacts which occupy a substantially larger fraction of the total apposition length than in the endbulbs. Many of these synaptic contacts show well-defined presynaptic grids and have postsynaptic densities intermediate in width between the endbulbs and the symmetrical endings. This second type of nonprimary ending may be responsible for the long-latency excitatory post-synaptic potentials seen in intracellular recordings from NM during electrical stimulation of the cochlear nerve. The morphology and distribution of the three ending types does not differ significantly along the posterior-to-anterior axis of NM.
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PMID:Morphology of axosomatic endings in an avian cochlear nucleus: nucleus magnocellularis of the chicken. 732 Feb 34

We built a passive compartmental model of a cortical spiny stellate cell from the barrel cortex of the mouse that had been reconstructed in its entirety from electron microscopic analysis of serial thin sections (White and Rock, 1980). Morphological data included dimensions of soma and all five dendrites, neck lengths and head diameters of all 380 spines (a uniform neck diameter of 0.1 micron was assumed), locations of all symmetrical and asymmetrical (axo-spinous) synapses, and locations of all 43 thalamocortical (TC) synapses (as identified from the consequences of a prior thalamic lesion). In the model, unitary excitatory synaptic inputs had a peak conductance change of 0.5 nS at 0.2 msec; conclusions were robust over a wide range of assumed passive-membrane parameters. When recorded at the soma, all unitary EPSPs, which were initiated at the spine heads, were relatively iso-efficient; each produced about 1 mV somatic depolarization regardless of spine location or geometry. However, in the spine heads there was a twentyfold variation in EPSP amplitudes, largely reflecting the variation in spine neck lengths. Synchronous activation of the TC synapses produced a somatic depolarization probably sufficient to fire the neuron; doubling or halving the TC spine neck diameters had only minimal effect on the amplitude of the composite TC-EPSP. As have others, we also conclude that from a somato-centric viewpoint, changes in spine geometry would have relatively little direct influence on amplitudes of EPSPs recorded at the soma, especially for a distributed, synchronously activated input such as the TC pathway. However, consideration of the detailed morphology of an entire neuron indicates that, from a dendro-centric point of view, changes in spine dimension can have a very significant electrical impact on local processing near the sites of input.
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PMID:Electrical consequences of spine dimensions in a model of a cortical spiny stellate cell completely reconstructed from serial thin sections. 852 Dec 82

We have investigated the membrane properties and excitatory synaptic transmission of mitral cells in a slice preparation of rat olfactory bulb. In response to intracellular injection of depolarizing current, most mitral cells showed several distinct membrane properties: (1) delayed onset of firing (suggesting the presence of a type of potassium A current); (2) subthreshold oscillation of the membrane potential; and (3) repetitive firing of clustered action potentials during prolonged threshold stimulation. Olfactory nerve (ON) stimulation evoked a long-lasting EPSP in most of the mitral cells. This long EPSP was completely blocked by combined application of NMDA and non-NMDA receptor antagonists (20 microM CNQX and 100 microM APV), confirming that glutamate is the neurotransmitter at the synapses from ON to mitral cells. The ON-evoked EPSP was preceded by a prespike, which was resistant to membrane potential hyperpolarization at the soma. This fast prepotential may be indicative of an active response in the primary dendritic tufts of the mitral cells. Stimulation of the lateral olfactory tract evoked an antidromic pulse followed by a short EPSP, which could also be elicited independently of an antidromic spike in the recorded cell. Since the asymmetrical synapses so far observed on the mitral cells are all form the ON, this antidromically evoked EPSP may reflect self-excitation of a mitral cell by glutamate released from its own dendrites by antidromic impulse invasion, or/and lateral excitation by neighboring invaded dendrites.
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PMID:Membrane and synaptic properties of mitral cells in slices of rat olfactory bulb. 903 9

1. Dual whole-cell recordings were made from pairs of synaptically coupled excitatory neurones in the 'barrel field' in layer (L) 4 in slices of young (postnatal day 12-15) rat somatosensory cortex. The majority of interconnected excitatory neurones were spiny stellate cells with an asymmetrical dendritic arborisation largely confined to a single barrel. The remainder were star pyramidal cells with a prominent apical dendrite terminating in L2/3 without forming a tuft. 2. Excitatory synaptic connections were examined between 131 pairs of spiny L4 neurones. Single presynaptic action potentials evoked unitary EPSPs with a peak amplitude of 1.59 +/- 1.51 mV (mean +/- s. d.), a latency of 0.92 +/- 0.35 ms, a rise time of 1.53 +/- 0.46 ms and a decay time constant of 17.8 +/- 6.3 ms. 3. At 34-36 C, the coefficient of variation (c.v.) of the unitary EPSP amplitude was 0. 37 +/- 0.16 and the percentage of failures to evoke an EPSP was 5.3 +/- 7.8 %. The c.v. and failure rate decreased with increasing amplitude of the unitary EPSP. 4. Postsynaptic glutamate receptors in spiny L4 neurones were of the AMPA and NMDA type. At -60 mV in the presence of 1 mM Mg2+, NMDA receptors contributed 39.3 +/- 12.5 % to the EPSP integral. In Mg2+-free solution, the NMDA receptor/AMPA receptor ratio of the EPSC was 0.86 +/- 0.64. 5. The number of putative synaptic contacts established by the projection neurone with the target neurone varied between two and five with a mean of 3.4 +/- 1.0 (n = 11). Synaptic contacts were exclusively found in the barrel in which the cell pair was located and were preferentially located on secondary to quarternary dendritic branches. Their mean geometric distance from the soma was 68.8 +/- 37.4 microm (range, 33.4-168.0 microm). The number of synaptic contacts and mean EPSP amplitude showed no significant correlation. 6. The results suggest that in L4 of the barrel cortex synaptic transmission between spiny neurones is largely restricted to a single barrel. The connections are very reliable, probably due to a high release probability, and have a high efficacy because of the compact structure of the dendrites and axons of spiny neurones. Intrabarrel connections thus function to amplify and distribute the afferent thalamic activity in the vertical directions of a cortical column.
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PMID:Reliable synaptic connections between pairs of excitatory layer 4 neurones within a single 'barrel' of developing rat somatosensory cortex. 1056 43

The hypothesis for directional selectivity of frequency modulations (FMs) invokes a mechanism with an honored tradition in sensory neurobiology, the relative timing of excitation and inhibition. The proposal is that the timing disparity is created by asymmetrical locations of excitatory tuning and inhibitory sidebands. Thus, cells in which the inhibitory sidebands are tuned to frequencies lower than the excitatory tuning are selective for downward sweeping FMs, because frequencies first generate excitation followed by inhibition. Upward sweeping FMs, in contrast, first evoke inhibition that either leads or is coincident with the excitation and prevents discharges. Here we evaluated FM directional selectivity with in vivo whole-cell recordings from the inferior colliculus of awake bats. From the whole-cell recordings, we derived synaptic conductance waveforms evoked by downward and upward FMs. We then tested the effects of shifting inhibition relative to excitation in a model and found that latency shifts had only minor effects on EPSP amplitudes that were often <1.0 mV/ms shift. However, when the PSPs peaked close to spike threshold, even small changes in latency could cause some cells to fire more strongly to a particular FM direction and thus change its directional selectivity. Furthermore, the effect of shifting inhibition depended strongly on initial latency differences and the shapes of the conductance waveforms. We conclude that "timing" is more than latency differences between excitation and inhibition, and response selectivity depends on a complex interaction between the timing, the shapes, and magnitudes of the excitatory and inhibitory conductances and spike threshold.
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PMID:It's about time: how input timing is used and not used to create emergent properties in the auditory system. 2132 25