Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine INM-10, Research Centre Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany.
Department of Neurosurgery, Knappschaftskrankenhaus Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
Elife. 2019 Nov 20;8:e48373. doi: 10.7554/eLife.48373.
Synapses are fundamental building blocks controlling and modulating the 'behavior' of brain networks. How their structural composition, most notably their quantitative morphology underlie their computational properties remains rather unclear, particularly in humans. Here, excitatory synaptic boutons (SBs) in layer 4 (L4) of the temporal lobe neocortex (TLN) were quantitatively investigated. Biopsies from epilepsy surgery were used for fine-scale and tomographic electron microscopy (EM) to generate 3D-reconstructions of SBs. Particularly, the size of active zones (AZs) and that of the three functionally defined pools of synaptic vesicles (SVs) were quantified. SBs were comparatively small (2.50 μm), with a single AZ (0.13 µm); preferentially established on spines. SBs had a total pool of 1800 SVs with strikingly large readily releasable (20), recycling (80) and resting pools (850). Thus, human L4 SBs may act as 'amplifiers' of signals from the sensory periphery, integrate, synchronize and modulate intra- and extracortical synaptic activity.
突触是控制和调节大脑网络“行为”的基本构建块。它们的结构组成,尤其是它们在计算特性下的定量形态,在人类中仍然相当不清楚。在这里,对颞叶新皮质 (TLN) 第 4 层 (L4) 的兴奋性突触末梢 (SB) 进行了定量研究。使用癫痫手术的活检标本进行精细尺度和断层电子显微镜 (EM) 以生成 SB 的 3D 重建。特别地,量化了活性区 (AZ) 的大小和三个功能定义的突触小泡 (SV) 池的大小。SB 相对较小(2.50 μm),单个 AZ(0.13 µm);优先建立在棘突上。SB 具有约 1800 个 SV 的总池,其中大量的 SV 易于释放(20)、再循环(80)和静止(~850)。因此,人类 L4 SB 可能充当来自感觉外围的信号的“放大器”,整合、同步和调节皮质内和皮质外的突触活动。