SHORT TERM SYNAPTIC PLASTICITY OF CORTICAL INTERNEURONS

突触的短期可塑性对其所在的神经回路的功能有深远的影响。纳尔逊实验室之前的工作已经使用一种定量(参数)方法，使用在一系列生理频率上传递的一系列诱发刺激来表征大鼠视觉皮质的短期可塑性。通过制作大鼠新皮质脑片2/3层非锥体神经元的全细胞电压钳记录，将先前获得的锥体细胞的结果扩展到对抑制中间神经元的抑制输入的短期可塑性的表征。这些抑制性中间神经元将从生理和形态上进行表征和鉴定。我们的目标是：1)表征通过细胞外或细胞内突触前刺激诱导的IPSCs的神经元间-神经元间突触可塑性；2)确定突触可塑性是否根据突触前或突触后神经元的神经元亚型而有差异地表达；以及3)研究神经调节剂如乙酰胆碱是否能改变神经元间-神经元间的突触可塑性。通过研究皮质突触可塑性的胆碱能调节，这些结果可能对行为和认知脑功能以及神经障碍，如阿尔茨海默病，可能与胆碱能功能障碍有关。

Short-term synaptic plasticity has a profound effect on the function of the neural circuit in which it is embedded. Previous work in the Nelson lab has characterized the short-term plasticity in the rat visual cortex using a quantitative (parametric) method, using trains of evoked stimuli delivered over a range of physiological frequencies. extend results previously obtained for pyramidal cells to a characterization of the short-term plasticity of inhibitory inputs to inhibitory interneurons by making whole-cell voltage-clamp recordings of nonpyramidal neurons in layers 2/3 in slices of rat neocortex. These inhibitory interneurons will be characterized and identified physiologically and morphologically. Our goals are: 1) Characterize the interneuron-interneuron synaptic plasticity of evoked IPSCs by extracellular or intracellular presynaptic stimulation; 2) Determine if the synaptic plasticity is differentially expressed depending on the interneuron subtype of the presynaptic or postsynaptic neuron; and 3) Investigate whether the interneuron-interneuron synaptic plasticity can be modified by neuro-modulatory agents such as acetylcholine. By investigating the cholinergic modulation of cortical synaptic plasticity, these results may have implications for behavioral and cognitive brain function, and the neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, which may be related cholinergic dysfunction.