AI Article Synopsis
- Medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in the mouse nucleus accumbens receive neural signals from the cortex, thalamus, and hippocampus.
- The inputs from the hippocampus are notably weaker for indirect MSNs, with connections occurring at small spines on the far ends of their dendrites.
- To activate these weaker inputs and affect the output of the nucleus accumbens, indirect MSNs require an additional depolarization step to reach the threshold for action potentials.
Article Abstract
We found that medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in both the direct and indirect pathways of the mouse nucleus accumbens (NAc) receive inputs from the cortex, thalamus and hippocampus. However, hippocampal inputs were much weaker onto indirect MSNs, where they contacted small spines located in the distal dendrites. This selective targeting means that these inputs must be gated by subthreshold depolarization to trigger action potentials and influence NAc output.
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3986679 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.3254 | DOI Listing |
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