Spectral breadth and laminar distribution of thalamocortical inputs to A1.

The GABAergic agonist muscimol is used to inactivate brain regions in order to reveal afferent inputs in isolation. However, muscimol's use in primary auditory cortex (A1) has been questioned on the grounds that it may unintentionally suppress thalamocortical inputs. We tested whether muscimol can preferentially suppress cortical, but not thalamocortical, circuits in urethane-anesthetized mice.

Contribution of different classes of glutamate receptors in the corticostriatal polysynaptic responses from striatal direct and indirect projection neurons.

Background: Previous work showed differences in the polysynaptic activation of GABAergic synapses during corticostriatal suprathreshold responses in direct and indirect striatal projection neurons (dSPNs and iSPNs). Here, we now show differences and similarities in the polysynaptic activation of cortical glutamatergic synapses on the same responses. Corticostriatal contacts have been extensively studied.

Dopaminergic modulation of corticostriatal responses in medium spiny projection neurons from direct and indirect pathways.

Suprathreshold corticostriatal responses recorded from medium spiny neurons (MSNs) from the direct and indirect pathways of the basal ganglia are different. Their differences readily distinguish D(1)- and D(2)-type receptor expressing MSNs in both bacterial artificial chromosome-transgenic mice and their control littermates as well as in rats: indirect pathway neurons are more excitable than direct pathway neurons revealing autoregenerative spikes underlying their spike trains, whereas direct pathway neurons exhibit more prolonged plateau potentials and spike trains. SFK 81297, a selective agonist for D(1)-class receptors enhanced corticostriatal responses in direct pathway neurons, while quinelorane, a selective agonist for D(2)-class receptors reduced orthodromic and autoregenerative responses in indirect pathway neurons thus making both neuron classes similarly excitable.

Different corticostriatal integration in spiny projection neurons from direct and indirect pathways.

The striatum is the principal input structure of the basal ganglia. Major glutamatergic afferents to the striatum come from the cerebral cortex and make monosynaptic contacts with medium spiny projection neurons (MSNs) and interneurons. Also: glutamatergic afferents to the striatum come from the thalamus.