Short-term depression shapes information transmission in a constitutively active GABAergic synapse
Hagar Lavian1, Alon Korngreen2,3
1The Leslie and Susan Gonda Interdisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 5290002, Israel.
Scientific Reports
|December 4, 2019
Summary
Short-term depression in the basal ganglia acts as a gain control mechanism, not a simple filter. This synaptic property allows for flexible information transmission modes, even during constant high firing rates.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Computational Neuroscience
- Synaptic Plasticity
Background:
- Short-term depression (STD) typically reduces synaptic information transfer at high firing rates.
- Many neurons exhibit high firing rates, raising questions about how synapses remain informative.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate how STD influences information transmission in the basal ganglia's indirect pathway.
- Examine the role of globus pallidus (GP) neuron firing rates on entopeduncular nucleus (EP) neuron information processing.
Main Methods:
- Utilized numerical modeling and whole-cell recordings from rat brain slices.
- Analyzed synaptic responses in entopeduncular nucleus (EP) neurons to varying globus pallidus (GP) firing rates.
Main Results:
- Observed significant variability in steady-state depression, inversely related to stimulation frequency.
- Modeling predicted this variability leads to differential postsynaptic noise levels.
- Simulations indicated GP-EP synapses mediate gain control, enabling diverse information transmission modes.
Conclusions:
- Short-term depression shapes information transmission in the basal ganglia.
- Dopamine may shift GP neuron function between rate coding and gain modulation.
- STD in GABAergic synapses contributes to flexible neural information processing.
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