scholarly journals Subthreshold oscillation of the membrane potential in magnocellular neurones of the rat supraoptic nucleus

2000 ◽  
Vol 526 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerd Boehmer ◽  
Wolfgang Greffrath ◽  
Erich Martin ◽  
Sven Hermann
2009 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Künsting ◽  
Hartwig Spors

Input patterns to the olfactory bulb are dynamic and change in an odor-specific manner as measured by selective calcium imaging of olfactory bulb input. To our knowledge, none of the published models of olfactory bulb function uses dynamic input patterns. Therefore we tested how dynamic input alters the behavior of a simple model consisting of two layers. The membrane potential of the first-layer neurons, integrate-and-fire neurons corresponding to mitral cells, was modulated with a subthreshold oscillation at respiration frequency. The membrane potential of the second-layer neurons was used to discriminate input patterns. We implemented oscillating input with amplitudes and latencies different for each mitral cell. Not only varying the input amplitudes but also de-synchronizing the input, and varying the relation between latency and input amplitude, individually changed the model's performance significantly. The discrimination time was affected more easily than the number of second-layer neurons that can differentiate an odor pair. Increasing the de-synchronization, i.e., the spread of latency values, reduced the differences in response time between strong and weak stimulus pairs without reducing the number of reacting cells. Input phase relative to the subthreshold oscillation altered the effect of de-synchronization. Thus dynamic input changes performance parameters of models of olfactory information processing that can be verified experimentally.


1983 ◽  
Vol 217 (1207) ◽  
pp. 141-161 ◽  

The electrical properties of neurons in the supraoptic nucleus (so.n.) have been studied in the hypothalamic slice preparation by intracellular and extracellular recording techniques, with Lucifer Yellow CH dye injection to mark the recording site as being the so. n. Intracellular recordings from so. n. neurons revealed them to have an average membrane potential of ─ 67±0.8 mV (mean±s. e. m.), membrane resistance of 145±9 MΩ with linear current–voltage relations from 40 mV in the hyperpolarizing direction to the level of spike threshold in the depolarizing direction. Average cell time constant was 14±2.2 ms. So. n. action potentials ranged in amplitude from 55 to 95 mV, with a mean of 76±2 mV, and a spike width of 2.6±0.5 ms at 30% of maximal spike height. Both single spikes and trains of spikes were followed by a strong, long-lasting hyperpolarization with a decay fitted by a single exponential having a time constant of 8.6±1.8 ms. Action potentials could be blocked by 10 -6 m tetrodotoxin. Spontaneously active so. n. neurons were characterized by synaptic input in the form of excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic potentials, the latter being apparently blocked when 4 m KCI electrodes were used. Both forms of synaptic activity were blocked by application of divalent cations such as Mg 2+ , Mn 2+ or Co 2+ . 74% of so. n. neurons fired spontaneously at rates exceeding 0.1 spikes per second, with a mean for all cells of 2.9±0.2 s -1 . Of these cells, 21% fired slowly and continuously at 0.1─1.0 s -1 , 45 % fired continuously at greater than 1 Hz, and the remaining 34% fired phasically in bursts of activity followed by silence or low frequency firing. Spontaneously firing phasic cells showed a mean burst length of 16.7± 4.5 s and a silent period of 28.2±4.2 s. Intracellular recordings revealed the presence of slow variations in membrane potential which modified the neuron’s proximity to spike threshold, and controlled phasic firing. Variations in synaptic input were not observed to influence firing in phasic cells.


Author(s):  
R H. Selinfreund ◽  
A. H. Cornell-Bell

Cellular electrophysiological properties are normally monitored by standard patch clamp techniques . The combination of membrane potential dyes with time-lapse laser confocal microscopy provides a more direct, least destructive rapid method for monitoring changes in neuronal electrical activity. Using membrane potential dyes we found that spontaneous action potential firing can be detected using time-lapse confocal microscopy. Initially, patch clamp recording techniques were used to verify spontaneous electrical activity in GH4\C1 pituitary cells. It was found that serum depleted cells had reduced spontaneous electrical activity. Brief exposure to the serum derived growth factor, IGF-1, reconstituted electrical activity. We have examined the possibility of developing a rapid fluorescent assay to measure neuronal activity using membrane potential dyes. This neuronal regeneration assay has been adapted to run on a confocal microscope. Quantitative fluorescence is then used to measure a compounds ability to regenerate neuronal firing.The membrane potential dye di-8-ANEPPS was selected for these experiments. Di-8- ANEPPS is internalized slowly, has a high signal to noise ratio (40:1), has a linear fluorescent response to change in voltage.


Author(s):  
Leslie M. Loew

A major application of potentiometric dyes has been the multisite optical recording of electrical activity in excitable systems. After being championed by L.B. Cohen and his colleagues for the past 20 years, the impact of this technology is rapidly being felt and is spreading to an increasing number of neuroscience laboratories. A second class of experiments involves using dyes to image membrane potential distributions in single cells by digital imaging microscopy - a major focus of this lab. These studies usually do not require the temporal resolution of multisite optical recording, being primarily focussed on slow cell biological processes, and therefore can achieve much higher spatial resolution. We have developed 2 methods for quantitative imaging of membrane potential. One method uses dual wavelength imaging of membrane-staining dyes and the other uses quantitative 3D imaging of a fluorescent lipophilic cation; the dyes used in each case were synthesized for this purpose in this laboratory.


1960 ◽  
Vol XXXIV (I) ◽  
pp. 8-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Kivalo ◽  
U. K. Rinne

ABSTRACT Acute stress, chronic stress plus hydration, cortisone treatment, cortisone treatment plus dehydration were used as methods of investigation and the relation between the neurosecretory activity of the hypothalamic supraoptic nucleus and paraventricular nucleus and the neurosecretory material around the hypophysial portal vessels of the median eminence on the one hand and the corticotrophin release on the other hand, has been studied in the rat. Whereas stress stimulates both the activity of the above mentioned cells of the hypothalamus and the ACTH release, stress plus hydration causes a depression of these hypothalamic cells but nevertheless causes a marked ACTH release. Cortisone inhibits the activity of the cells in the supraoptic nucleus and the paraventricular nucleus as well as the ACTH release whereas cortisone plus dehydration causes stimulation but inhibits the ACTH release. In some stress and cortisone treatment groups the variations of the neurosecretory material around the hypophysial portal vessels and of the ACTH release were found to show a correlation. It is concluded that the activity of the cells of the supraoptic nucleus and the paraventricular nucleus and the ACTH release do not seem to have any definite connection, whereas some observations indicate that the neurosecretory material in the region of the median eminence around the hypophysial portal vessels may have some significance in ACTH release.


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