Comparison of unitary synaptic currents generated by indirect and direct pathway neurons of the mouse striatum

Two subtypes of striatal spiny projection neurons, iSPNs and dSPNs, whose axons form the "indirect" and "direct" pathways of the basal ganglia, respectively, both make synaptic connections in the external globus pallidus (GPe) but are usually found to have different effects on behavior. Activation of the terminal fields of iSPNs or dSPNs generated compound currents in almost all GPe neurons. To determine whether iSPNs and dSPNs have the same or different effects on pallidal neurons, we studied the unitary synaptic currents generated in GPe neurons by action potentials in single striatal neurons. We used optogenetic excitation to elicit repetitive firing in a small number of nearby SPNs, producing sparse barrages of inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) in GPe neurons. From these barrages, we isolated sequences of IPSCs with similar time courses and amplitudes, which presumably arose from the same SPN. There was no difference between the amplitudes of unitary IPSCs generated by the indirect and direct pathways. Most unitary IPSCs were small, but a subset from each pathway were much larger. To determine the effects of these unitary synaptic currents on the action potential firing of GPe neurons, we drove SPNs to fire as before and recorded the membrane potential of GPe neurons. Large unitary potentials from iSPNs and dSPNs perturbed the spike timing of GPe neurons in a similar way. Most SPN-GPe neuron pairs are weakly connected, but a subset of pairs in both pathways are strongly connected.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This is the first study to record the synaptic currents generated by single identified direct or indirect pathway striatal neurons on single pallidal neurons. Each GPe neuron receives synaptic inputs from both pathways. Most striatal neurons generate small synaptic currents that become influential when occurring together, but a few are powerful enough to be individually influential.