[Post-tetanic modification of the efficacy of excitatory transmission in neuronal networks with interhemispheric connections].

The modifiable reciprocal transcallosal monosynaptic excitatory connections were for the first time detected in vivo experiments in rat motor cortex using multiunit recording and crosscorrelation analysis, It was shown that high-frequency microstimulation (MCS) of a small group of cortical cells of one hemisphere produces long-term changes in the efficacy of transcallosal excitatory connections, and also ipsilateral connections in both hemispheres. The posttetanic changes appear as long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). The bursting neurons were found to have more favorable conditions for the induction of LTP of most converging inputs (in contrast to cells with other discharge patterns). Both LTP and LTD could be simultaneously induced in synapses formed by axon collaterals of a callosal cell on several neurons. LTP and LTD could be simultaneously obtained at diverse synapses of the same cell. The number of spontaneously active callosal neurons as well as the number and efficacy of transcallosal connections increased after the MCS, whereas the number and efficacy of ipsilateral connections decreased. Basing on these data we assume that the ipsilateral inhibition is more effective than the transcallosal inhibition. MCS results in the modification of the pattern of initially existing connections between numerous neurons of an ensemble including cells of both hemispheres.