Journal article
Comparative strength and dendritic organization of thalamocortical and corticocortical synapses onto excitatory layer 4 neurons
CE Schoonover, JC Tapia, VC Schilling, V Wimmer, R Blazeski, W Zhang, CA Mason, RM Bruno
Journal of Neuroscience | SOC NEUROSCIENCE | Published : 2014
Abstract
Thalamus is a potent driver of cortical activity even though cortical synapses onto excitatory layer 4 neurons outnumber thalamic synapses 10 to 1. Previous in vitro studies have proposed that thalamocortical (TC) synapses are stronger than corticocortical (CC) synapses. Here, we investigated possible anatomical and physiological differences between these inputs in the rat in vivo. We developed a high-throughput light microscopy method, validated by electron microscopy, to completely map the locations of synapses across an entire dendritic tree. This demonstrated that TC synapses are slightly more proximal to the soma than CC synapses, but detailed compartmental modeling predicted that dendr..
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Grants
Awarded by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke-National Institutes of Health (Grant R01 NS069679 to R. M. B., Grant T32 NS064928 to C. E. S.), the Rita Allen Foundation, the Gatsby Foundation (R. M. B.), the National Science Foundation (Graduate Research Fellowship to C. E. S.), ALS Therapy Alliance (J.-C.T.), the New York Stem Cell Foundation (J.-C.T.), and the National Health and Medical Research Council Australia (Grant 1030016 to V. W.). We thank Attila Losonczy, Kevin Franks, Andrew Fink, and members of the Bruno laboratory for substantive comments on the manuscript and Drew Baughman for technical support.