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Role of a striatal slowly inactivating potassium current in short-term facilitation of corticostriatal inputs: a
S Mahon1, J M Deniau, S Charpier
1Institut des Neurosciences, Département de Neurochimie-Anatomie, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, F-75005 Paris, France. severine.mahon@snv.jussieu.fr
Abstract:
Striatal output neurons (SONs) integrate glutamatergic synaptic inputs originating from the cerebral cortex. In vivo electrophysiological data have shown that a prior depolarization of SONs induced a short-term (=1 sec) increase in their membrane excitability, which facilitated the ability of corticostriatal synaptic potentials to induce firing. Here we propose, using a computational model of SONs, that the use-dependent, short-term increase in the responsiveness of SONs mainly results from the slow kinetics of a voltage-dependent, slowly inactivating potassium A-current. This mechanism confers on SONs a form of intrinsic short-term memory that optimizes the synaptic input-output relationship as a function of their past activation.