GABA-mediated giant depolarizing potentials as coincidence detectors for enhancing synaptic efficacy in the developing hippocampus
- 8 March 2004
- journal article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Vol. 101 (11), 3967-3972
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0305974101
Abstract
Spontaneously occurring neuronal oscillations constitute a hallmark of developmental networks. They have been observed in the retina, neocortex, hippocampus, thalamus, and spinal cord. In the immature hippocampus, the so-called "giant depolarizing potentials" (GDPs) are network-driven synaptic events generated by gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which at this stage is depolarizing and excitatory. We have tested the hypothesis that during the first postnatal week, GDP-associated calcium signals may alter the properties of synaptic transmission at poorly developed mossy fiber (MF)-CA3 connections. We found that "pairing" GDPs with MF stimulation induced a persistent increase in synaptic efficacy at MF-CA3 synapses. When the interval between GDPs and MF stimulation was increased, the potentiating effect progressively declined and disappeared. The potentiation depended on activation of voltage-dependent calcium channels and calcium flux. This activity may contribute to the refinement of neuronal connectivity before the establishment of the adult neuronal circuit.Keywords
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