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Membrane bistability in olfactory bulb mitral cells.

P Heyward¹, M Ennis, A Keller

¹Department of Anatomy, Program in Neuroscience, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience

|July 5, 2001

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Rat mitral cells exhibit bistability, spontaneously switching between high and low activity states. This intrinsic property significantly influences how these olfactory bulb neurons respond to olfactory nerve input.

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Electrophysiology

Background:

Mitral cells are key output neurons of the main olfactory bulb.
Understanding their intrinsic properties is crucial for olfactory processing.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the electrophysiological properties of rat mitral cells.
To determine the role of cellular bistability in olfactory nerve signal transduction.

Main Methods:

Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in rat main olfactory bulb brain slices.
Analysis of spontaneous membrane potential fluctuations and responses to olfactory nerve stimulation.

Main Results:

The majority of mitral cells display bistability, alternating between depolarized (upstate) and hyperpolarized (downstate) potentials.

Related Experiment Videos

Bistability is an intrinsic, voltage-dependent property, independent of synaptic inputs.

Olfactory nerve stimulation preferentially elicits action potentials in the upstate and can trigger transitions from the downstate to the upstate.

Conclusions:

Mitral cell bistability is an intrinsic neuronal property.
This bistability significantly shapes mitral cell responses to olfactory nerve input, amplifying and prolonging depolarizations.