Phasic bursting activity of rat paraventricular neurones in the absence of synaptic transmission

1. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the phasic bursting activity, characteristic of certain magnocellular neuropeptidergic neurones in rat hypothalamus, is dependent upon chemical synaptic input.2. Slices of hypothalamus were placed in an in vitro chamber with hippocampal slices. The synaptic response in the CA1 cell layer from Schaffer collateral stimulation was monitored before, during and after synaptic transmission was blocked by superfusion of medium containing high Mg(2+) (either 18.7 or 9.3 mM) and low Ca(2+) (0.05 mM). This well studied pathway was chosen as an assay of synaptic blockade because hypothalamic circuitry is relatively unknown.3. The electrical activity of twenty-two phasic bursting neurones in the lateral portion of the paraventricular nucleus (p.v.n.) was recorded. Nineteen of twenty-two phasic p.v.n. neurones were recorded only after synaptic transmission was blocked. The remaining three cells were firing phasically in standard medium when first encountered and continued to display phasic bursting activity for up to 1.25 hr after synaptic blockade. Active cells in nearby hypothalamic areas did not show phasic bursting patterns either before or after synaptic transmission was blocked.4. The phasic bursting activity of the p.v.n. neurones in this study and that of previously reported p.v.n. cells in vivo were similar in (a) firing rate within bursts (b) burst length and (c) silent period duration.5. It is concluded that phasic bursting in p.v.n. magnocellular neuropeptidergic cells is not dependent upon synaptically mediated excitation or recurrent inhibition as has been hypothesized earlier.6. Alternative hypotheses, based upon acute changes in [K(+)](o), endogenous membrane currents and electrotonic coupling are discussed as possible explanations of phasic bursting in these magnocellular neuropeptidergic cells.