Skip Navigation



Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on April 24, 2008
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn061
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary Data
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
19/1/89    most recent
bhn061v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hanganu, I. L.
Right arrow Articles by Luhmann, H. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hanganu, I. L.
Right arrow Articles by Luhmann, H. J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Cellular Mechanisms of Subplate-Driven and Cholinergic Input-Dependent Network Activity in the Neonatal Rat Somatosensory Cortex

Ileana L. Hanganu1, Akihito Okabe1,2, Volkmar Lessmann1,3 and Heiko J. Luhmann1

1 Institute of Physiology and Pathophysiology, Johannes Gutenberg-University, 55128 Mainz, Germany, 2 Current address: Department of Physiology, Hyogo College of Medicine, Hyogo 663-8501, Japan, 3 Current address: Institute of Physiology, Otto-von-Guericke University, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany

Address correspondence to Ileana L. Hanganu, PhD, Institute of Physiology & Pathophysiology, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Duesbergweg 6, D-55128 Mainz, Germany. Email: hanganu{at}uni-mainz.de

Early coordinated network activity promotes the development of cortical structures. Although these early activity patterns have been recently characterized with respect to their developmental, spatial and dynamic properties, the cellular mechanisms by which specific neuronal populations trigger coordinated activity in the neonatal cerebral cortex are still poorly understood. Here we characterize the cellular and molecular processes leading to generation of network activity during early postnatal development. We show that the somatosensory cortex of newborn rats expresses cholinergic-driven calcium transients which are synchronized within the deeply located subplate. Correspondingly, endogenous or agonist-induced activation of predominantly m1/m5-assembled muscarinic acetylcholine receptors elicits bursts of action potentials (up states) as a result of suprathreshold activation of the subplate. Tonic activation by ambient nonsynaptically released gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) facilitates the generation of up states in the neonatal cortex. Additionally, this network activity critically depends on neuronal gap junctions but not on glutamatergic or GABAergic synaptic transmission. Thus, an early circuit relying on the integrative function of the subplate as well as on cholinergic-driven tonic GABA depolarization and tight electrical coupling is able to generate coordinated network activity, which may shape the architecture and control the function of the developing cerebral cortex.

Key Words: calcium transients • development • gap junctions • m1/m5 muscarinic receptors • tonic GABA • up state


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
P. R. L. Parker, S. J. Cruikshank, and B. W. Connors
Stability of Electrical Coupling despite Massive Developmental Changes of Intrinsic Neuronal Physiology
J. Neurosci., August 5, 2009; 29(31): 9761 - 9770.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
J.-W. Yang, I. L. Hanganu-Opatz, J.-J. Sun, and H. J. Luhmann
Three Patterns of Oscillatory Activity Differentially Synchronize Developing Neocortical Networks In Vivo
J. Neurosci., July 15, 2009; 29(28): 9011 - 9025.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.