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Updated: Aug 4, 2026

Real-time Electrophysiology: Using Closed-loop Protocols to Probe Neuronal Dynamics and Beyond
Published on: June 24, 2015
Background synaptic conductance and precision of EPSP-spike coupling at pyramidal cells
Veronika Zsiros1, Shaul Hestrin
1Dept. of Comparative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Dr., R314, Stanford CA 94305-5342, USA.
Abstract:
The temporal precision of converting excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) into spikes at pyramidal cells is critical for the coding of information in the cortex. Several in vitro studies have shown that voltage-dependent conductances in pyramidal cells can prolong the EPSP time course resulting in an imprecise EPSP-spike coupling. We have used dynamic-clamp techniques to mimic the in vivo background synaptic conductance in cortical slices and investigated how the ongoing synaptic activity may affect the EPSP time course near threshold and the EPSP spike coupling. We report here that background synaptic conductance dramatically diminished the depolarization related prolongation of the EPSPs in pyramidal cells and improved the precision of spike timing. Furthermore, we found that background synaptic conductance can affect the interaction among action potentials in a spike train. Thus the level of ongoing synaptic activity in the cortex may regulate the capacity of pyramidal cells to process temporal information.
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