Peinado A, Yuste R, Katz L C
Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461.
Cereb Cortex. 1993 Sep-Oct;3(5):488-98. doi: 10.1093/cercor/3.5.488.
In the neocortex, as well as in many other brain regions, neurons responding to similar stimulus features are usually found close to one another. Here we examine the possible role of gap junctional communication in forming and defining these local neuronal groupings, examples of which may be the columns found in the neocortex of virtually all mammalian species. We have approached this question experimentally in cortical brain slices using calcium imaging to visualize multicellular activity patterns, and tracer injections to identify the anatomical pattern of gap junction coupling in the developing neocortex. Our results suggest that dendrodendritic gap junctional communication may be involved in the formation of local connectivity, most likely by synchronizing electrical or biochemical activity among neighboring neurons.
在新皮层以及许多其他脑区中，对相似刺激特征做出反应的神经元通常彼此相邻。在这里，我们研究缝隙连接通讯在形成和定义这些局部神经元集群中可能发挥的作用，几乎所有哺乳动物物种新皮层中的柱状结构可能就是这类集群的例子。我们通过在皮质脑片上进行实验来探讨这个问题，利用钙成像技术可视化多细胞活动模式，并通过注射示踪剂来确定发育中新皮层中缝隙连接耦合的解剖学模式。我们的结果表明，树突 - 树突缝隙连接通讯可能参与局部连接的形成，很可能是通过使相邻神经元之间的电活动或生化活动同步来实现的。
