Lighting up pre-synaptic potentiation: An Editorial for "SynaptoPAC, an optogenetic tool for induction of presynaptic plasticity" on page 324.

This is an Editorial Highlight of a manuscript by Oldani et al. (2020) (Oldani et al. 2020) in the current issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry, in which the authors describe synaptoPAC, a new optogenetic tool.

Theta Oscillations Coincide with Sustained Hyperpolarization in CA3 Pyramidal Cells, Underlying Decreased Firing.

Brain states modulate the membrane potential dynamics of neurons, influencing the functional repertoire of the network. Pyramidal cells (PCs) in the hippocampal CA3 are necessary for rapid memory encoding, which preferentially occurs during exploratory behavior in the high-arousal theta state. However, the relationship between the membrane potential dynamics of CA3 PCs and theta has not been explored.

Dynamics of cortical dendritic membrane potential and spikes in freely behaving rats.

Neural activity in vivo is primarily measured using extracellular somatic spikes, which provide limited information about neural computation. Hence, it is necessary to record from neuronal dendrites, which can generate dendritic action potentials (DAPs) in vitro, which can profoundly influence neural computation and plasticity. We measured neocortical sub- and suprathreshold dendritic membrane potential (DMP) from putative distal-most dendrites using tetrodes in freely behaving rats over multiple days with a high degree of stability and submillisecond temporal resolution.