Digital Neuroanatomy, Max Planck Florida Institute, Jupiter, FL 33458-2906, USA.
Cereb Cortex. 2012 Oct;22(10):2375-91. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhr317. Epub 2011 Nov 16.
Soma location, dendrite morphology, and synaptic innervation may represent key determinants of functional responses of individual neurons, such as sensory-evoked spiking. Here, we reconstruct the 3D circuits formed by thalamocortical afferents from the lemniscal pathway and excitatory neurons of an anatomically defined cortical column in rat vibrissal cortex. We objectively classify 9 cortical cell types and estimate the number and distribution of their somata, dendrites, and thalamocortical synapses. Somata and dendrites of most cell types intermingle, while thalamocortical connectivity depends strongly upon the cell type and the 3D soma location of the postsynaptic neuron. Correlating dendrite morphology and thalamocortical connectivity to functional responses revealed that the lemniscal afferents can account for some of the cell type- and location-specific subthreshold and spiking responses after passive whisker touch (e.g., in layer 4, but not for other cell types, e.g., in layer 5). Our data provides a quantitative 3D prediction of the cell type-specific lemniscal synaptic wiring diagram and elucidates structure-function relationships of this physiologically relevant pathway at single-cell resolution.
躯体位置、树突形态和突触支配可能代表单个神经元功能反应的关键决定因素，例如感觉诱发的放电。在这里，我们重建了来自薄束通路的丘脑皮质传入和大鼠触须皮层中解剖定义的皮质柱的兴奋性神经元形成的 3D 电路。我们客观地分类了 9 种皮质细胞类型，并估计了它们的胞体、树突和丘脑皮质突触的数量和分布。大多数细胞类型的胞体和树突相互混合，而丘脑皮质连接性强烈依赖于突触后神经元的细胞类型和 3D 胞体位置。将树突形态和丘脑皮质连接性与功能反应相关联表明，薄束传入可以解释被动触须后的一些细胞类型和位置特异性亚阈值和放电反应（例如，在第 4 层，但不是其他细胞类型，例如，在第 5 层）。我们的数据提供了细胞类型特异性薄束突触连接图的定量 3D 预测，并阐明了这条生理相关通路在单细胞分辨率下的结构-功能关系。
