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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Electrophysiological and Morphological Characterization of Neuronal Microcircuits in Acute Brain Slices Using Paired Patch-Clamp Recordings
Published on: January 10, 2015
Local synaptic connections of basal forebrain neurons
1Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 197 University Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102, USA. zaborszk@axon.rutgers.edu
Abstract:
Single, biocytin filled neurons in combination with immunocytochemistry and retrograde tracing as well as material with traditional double-immunolabeling were used at the light and electron microscopic levels to study the neural circuitry within the basal forebrain. Cholinergic neurons projecting to the frontal cortex exhibited extensive local collaterals terminating on non-cholinergic, (possible GABAergic) neurons within the basal forebrain. Elaborate axon arbors confined to the basal forebrain region also originated from NPY, somatostatin and other non-cholinergic interneurons. It is proposed that putative interneurons together with local collaterals from projection neurons contribute to regional integrative processing in the basal forebrain that may participate in more selective functions, such as attention and cortical plasticity.
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