1 Department of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06510, USA, 2 Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad Miguel Hernández-CSIC, Apartado 18, 03550, San Juan de Alicante, Spain, 3 Unité de Neurosciences Intégrative et Computationnelles, CNRS UPR 2191, Institut de Neurobiologie Alfred Fessard, 1 avenue de la Terrasse, Bat. 33, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
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Abstract |
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Introduction |
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Recently, we reported that slices of the ferret prefrontal and occipital cortex generate recurring periods of sustained (persistent) activity when maintained in vitro in an ionic solution that more closely mimics normal cerebrospinal fluid than is traditionally used for maintaining slices (Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000; Shu et al., 2003
). This recurrent activity is composed of so-called UP and DOWN states and appears nearly identical to that underlying the generation of the cortical slow oscillation in vivo during anesthesia or sleep (Steriade et al., 1993a
, 2001; Contreras and Steriade, 1995
; Contreras et al., 1996
). We propose that the mechanisms involved in the generation of this form of recurring sustained activity may have important implications regarding those underlying the generation of persistent activity during working memory tasks in the same neuronal circuits.
Changes in background synaptic activity may not only underlie the generation of persistent neuronal discharge, but also may have strong influences on neuronal excitability and responsiveness to other synaptic inputs (Bernander et al., 1991; Timofeev et al., 1996
; Destexhe and Paré, 1999
; Anderson et al., 2000a
,b; Destexhe et al., 2001
; Chance et al., 2002
; Fellous et al., 2003
; Mitchell and Silver, 2003
). Increases or decreases in background synaptic activity may mediate the influence of feedback pathways or local networks on the responsiveness of single neurons. Thus, rapid changes in barrages of fast excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic potentials may provide a mechanism for neuronal context such as the position of gaze in visualmotor transformations (Andersen and Mountcastle, 1983
; Andersen et al., 1985
; Salinas and Abbott, 1996
), selective attention (McAdams and Maunsell, 1999a
,b; Treue and Martínez-Trujillo, 1999
; Reynolds et al., 2000
; Chance et al., 2002
), long-range receptive field influences (Carandini and Heeger, 1994
; Angelucci et al., 2002
; Stettler et al., 2002
) and feedback from higher cortical areas (Hupé et al., 1998
).
Here we use intracellular and extracellular recordings from ferret prefrontal cortical slices to examine the cellular mechanisms underlying the generation of local sustained activity and how this may influence the neuronal responsiveness of cortical neurons to afferent inputs. These results are relevant to the possible mechanisms of persistent activity during short term memory tasks and may shed light on the mechanisms by which network activity influences neuronal processing.
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Methods |
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Simultaneous extracellular multiple unit and intracellular recordings were performed in layer 5 after at least 2 h of recovery. The normal bathing medium contained (in mM): NaCl, 126; KCl, 3.5; MgSO4, 1; NaH2PO4, 1.25; CaCl2, 11.2; NaHCO3, 26; dextrose, 10, and was aerated with 95% O2/5% CO2 to a final pH of 7.4. Sharp intracellular recording electrodes were formed on a Sutter Instruments (Novato, CA) P-80 micropipette puller from medium-walled glass (1B100F-4, WPI Sarasota, FL) and beveled on a Sutter Instruments beveller to final resistances of 60100 MOhms. Micropipettes were filled with 2 M KAc.
Dynamic Clamp and Data Analysis Techniques
After obtaining a stable intracellular recording from a layer 5 neuron, a number of experiments were performed with a dynamic clamp technique using a DAP-5216a board (Microstar Laboratory; Dorval et al., 2001). To test the responsiveness of cortical neurons in different states, different amplitude current pulses (typically 400 ms duration) were injected into the intracellularly recorded neurons. The effects of various manipulations on the resulting fI plots, as well as in spike timing, were then examined. The dynamic clamp system operated at 10 000 Hz in standard current clamp (bridge) mode or
3000 Hz in discontinuous current clamp (DCC) mode using an Axon Instruments Axoclamp-2B amplifier. In current clamp mode, the bridge was carefully balanced with the periodic injection of current pulses. In DCC mode, the headstage output was continuously monitored to ensure adequate settling time during the injection of current. The large majority of experiments were performed in DCC mode, since this was less sensitive to changes in bridge balance. Data collected were carefully monitored for problems with the dynamic clamp technique, which typically appear as breaks or incontinuities in the current injected. Data containing problems with the dynamic clamp technique were discarded.
The extracellular and intracellular data were collected using Spike-2 software (Cambridge Electronic Design; Cambridge, UK). The data was segregated into three periods, UP, DOWN, and in between states, according to activity in the multiple unit recording. The multiple unit recording was rectified and smoothed to yield an outline of the increase and decrease in activity associated with the onset and offset of the UP state. Two thresholds were positioned and the multiple unit activity was required to rise above the highest threshold to be counted as an UP state. The onset and offset of the UP state were then determined by the crossings of the lower threshold, which was set 2x baseline. Only UP states that were at least 0.5 s in duration were considered. DOWN states were defined as those periods for which the activity level stayed below the lower limit for a period of >0.5 s. Periods that were neither classified as UP nor DOWN were not analyzed.
In addition to the injection of current pulses, we also manipulated the level of membrane potential, conductance, and variance (noise) occurring within the cell at the recording (injection) site. Membrane potential was manipulated through the intracellular injection of steady current. Changing membrane conductance was achieved with the dynamic clamp system with the reversal potential of the conductance set to the measured resting membrane potential of the cell. Noise was modeled according to Destexhe et al. (2001). The total synaptic current, Isyn, was composed of two independent conductances according to the following:
Isyn = ge(t)(V Ee) + gi(t)(V Ei)
where ge(t) and gi(t) are the time-dependent conductances calculated as a one-variable stochastic process similar to the OrnsteinUhlenbeck process (Uhlenbeck and Ornstein, 1930; Destexhe et al., 2001
). In our model Ee is 0 mV and Ei is 75 mV and mean ge was typically equal to mean gi. The tau for correlations within Ge was typically 30 ms for both excitation and inhibition.
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Results |
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Recording intracellularly with sharp microelectrodes that contained 50 mM QX-314 to block voltage dependent Na+ currents (e.g. INat and INap) and 2 M CsAc to reduce K+ conductances allowed us to directly examine the voltage dependence of PSP barrages underlying the UP state (Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000; Shu et al., 2003
). Depolarization or hyperpolarization of pyramidal cells revealed barrages of fast events at all membrane potentials (e.g. Fig. 1B). At resting membrane potentials, these fast events appeared to ride on top of an envelope of depolarization, the amplitude of which depended upon the membrane potential of the cell. Depolarization with the intracellular injection of current reduced the amplitude of the depolarizing envelope associated with the UP state, and if the membrane potential was depolarized with current past 30 to 40 mV, then the PSP barrage associated with the UP state resulted in an overall hyperpolarization rather than a depolarization (Shu et al., 2003
). This activity therefore behaved as a roughly balanced mix of EPSPs and IPSPs, with a reversal potential approximately half way between the reversal potential of GABAA mediated inhibition (75 mV) and glutamatergic excitation (0 mV) (Shu et al., 2003
). Indeed, minimizing the contribution from GABAA-mediated inhibition (by keeping the cell near ECl) revealed strong barrages of excitatory postsynaptic potentials during the UP state. Similarly, depolarizing the cell to 0 mV, and thus minimizing the contribution from glutamatergic excitation, revealed the UP state to be associated with strong barrages of IPSPs throughout its entire duration (not shown). The presence of a strong mixture of EPSPs and IPSPs in the membrane depolarization of the UP state is consistent with the fact that the spike rates of both pyramidal neurons and fast spiking interneurons greatly increase during persistent network activity (Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000
; Shu et al., 2003
).
The critical involvement of recurrent excitation in the generation of sustained activity of the UP state was also demonstrated by examining the effects of bath application of the non-NMDA glutamate receptor antagonist CNQX (10 µM) and the NMDA receptor antagonist dl-APV (25 µM). Bath application of CNQX resulted in a rapid and complete abolition of UP states in both visual and prefrontal cortical slices (n = 6 visual; n = 4 prefrontal). Interestingly, block of NMDA receptors also resulted in a block of the UP state in the prefrontal cortical slices (n = 5), and a block or strong reduction of this activity in the visual cortical slices (Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000). Thus the generation of the UP state depends critically upon the activation of both NMDA and non-NMDA receptors at fast, glutamatergic synapses. In the presence of both CNQX and APV, a subset of layer 5 neurons remained spontaneously active (Compte et al., 2003a
), presumably through intrinsic ionic mechanisms. We assume that these spontaneously active layer 5 cells may be involved in the initiation of spontaneously occurring UP states (Fig. 2B).
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Impact of Sustained Activity on Neuronal Responsiveness
Neurons in the nervous system are constantly bombarded with synaptic activity (e.g. Destexhe and Paré, 1999; Steriade et al., 2001
). The level of this ongoing activity is not static: it dynamically changes, resulting in significant changes in the inputoutput properties of cortical neurons. Presumably, for example, the generation of sustained activity in prefrontal and other cortical areas modulates the response properties of these cells to the arrival of other synaptic inputs (e.g. Chance et al., 2002
). Here we examined how barrages of synaptic activity during the UP state modulate neuronal responsiveness to the intracellular injection of current pulses and sine wave currents of varying frequencies.
The intracellular injection of depolarizing current pulses during the UP and DOWN states (n = 10 cells) revealed that the UP state, and the barrages of synaptic activity that underlie it, are associated with a substantial increase in neuronal responsiveness (Fig. 3). Indeed, this effect was so powerful that current pulses that were completely subthreshold for the generation of action potentials in the DOWN state could generate a strong train of action potentials during the UP state (Fig. 3). The facilitation of responsiveness depended in part on the amplitude of the current pulse. Larger amplitude pulses were less facilitated than smaller amplitude pulses. This amplitude-dependent facilitation resulted in a decrease in slope of the inputoutput relationship during the UP state (Fig. 3C; see also Chance et al., 2002).
The intracellular injection of constant current pulses in an otherwise quiescent neuron results in stereotyped trains of action potentials, the interspike intervals of which are relatively repeatable from pulse to pulse (Fig. 3B; Nowak et al., 1997). Injection of the same pulses during the UP state, however, resulted in a considerable increase in variation in the interspike interval (Fig. 3B, UP state) such that the cumulative peristimulus histogram gave a much smoother appearance than that obtained in the DOWN state. In this way, the UP state was associated with an increase in variation in spike timing during constant current pulses.
Through what mechanism(s) is the barrage of synaptic activity during the UP state causing an increase in neuronal responsiveness to the current pulses along with an increase of spike timing variability? The barrages of synaptic potentials that underlie the UP state are associated with three general changes in the postsynaptic cell: depolarization of the membrane potential by an average of 7.6 ± 2.1 mV; increase in membrane conductance, ranging from 432 nS (n = 15 cells); and an increase in membrane potential variance of 2.6 ± 0.4 mV (n = 9 cells; Table 1). These values are similar or a little smaller than those reported during the slow oscillation in vivo, where the UP state is on average between 9.6 (Steriade et al., 2001) and 14.5 mV (Stern et al., 1997
) depolarized to the DOWN state, the SD of the membrane potential is increased by 23 mV (Stern et al., 1997
; Steriade et al., 2001
) and the membrane conductance is increased by an average of 27 nS (Paré et al., 1998
; Steriade et al., 2001
). To examine which of these three general changes (depolarization, increase conductance, increase membrane variance) were responsible for the increases in neuronal response during the UP state in our preparation, we manipulated each independently and examined the effect on the response to the intracellular injection of constant current pulses (Figs 47).
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To examine the effect of increases in membrane conductance on neuronal responses to current pulses, we used a dynamic clamp system (Dorval et al., 2001). Increases in the apparent leak conductance of the membrane (with the reversal potential of the leak set at the resting membrane potential of the cell) resulted in a rightward shift in the inputoutput relationship (Fig. 5B; n = 5 cells). The average shift (n = 5 cells) was 0.016 ± 0.0033 nA per nS increase in baseline membrane conductance, meaning that a 10 nS increase in membrane conductance will result in a requirement of 0.16 nA of additional current to achieve the same spike response. Again, these shifts in the inputoutput relation occurred without marked changes in slope (Fig. 5B).
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Increases in membrane potential noise through this method resulted in an increase in neuronal response to depolarizing current pulses, especially to smaller inputs (Figs 6 and 7). (Note that the average membrane potential does not change in response to the addition of noise since the injected conductance does not change.) The enhancement by noise was dependent upon the amplitude of the current pulse injected, resulting in a change in slope of the inputoutput relationship (Fig. 6D). Measurements of the action potential response to the smallest current pulse that generated action potentials in the presence of noise revealed an increase in effectiveness equivalent to an increase in the amplitude of the noise-free current pulse by 48 ± 21 pA per nS of increased SD of both Ge and Gi (n = 4 cells). The addition of noise-2, which results in a similar increase in SD of the membrane as the natural UP state, should then result in an increase in the number of action potentials generated by the smallest current pulse equivalent to increasing the constant current pulse by 0.1 nA (see also Chance et al., 2002
).
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Synaptic Activity of the UP State Facilitates the Response to Sine Wave Currents
Prior in vivo investigations have suggested that the spontaneous synaptic activity associated with the UP state may contribute to contrast-invariant responses in visual cortical neurons by removing the so-called iceberg effect (Anderson et al., 2000b). Here we investigated this phenomenon by examining the effects of the UP state on the response to the intracellular injection of sine wave currents of varying frequencies and amplitudes (n = 7 cells). The UP state increased the response to 45 Hz sine waves considerably (Fig. 8). During the DOWN state, the intracellular injection of the sine wave typically yielded action potentials only near the peak of the depolarizing phase of the current injection (Fig. 8B,C). However, during the UP state, action potentials were generated throughout a greater extent of the depolarizing phase, resulting in a better representation by the average action potential discharge of the amplitude-time course of the sine wave input (Fig. 8B,D). To quantify this effect, we examined the peak cross correlation between the injected sinewave current and the spike rate histogram. The UP state resulted in an increase in the peak cross correlation between injected current and the spike rate of the recorded cell (28% increase from r = 0.44 to 0.57; n = 6; P < 0.01). This increase in correlation by the UP state, however, was frequency dependent (see below).
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Increasing the frequency of the sine wave current from 10 to 100 Hz resulted in variations of this general finding. Increasing the frequency of current injection into neurons is well known to decrease the amplitude of the membrane deviation, owing to the low-pass filtering characteristics of neuronal membranes (e.g. Nowak et al., 1997). Owing to this decrease in response, the cell was depolarized with the intracellular injection of current at higher frequencies (40100 Hz) so that sinewave input generated action potentials, typically in both the DOWN and UP state. The UP state facilitated spike responses to all inputs up to the higher frequencies tested (50, 100 Hz; Fig. 9). The increase in peak cross correlation caused by the UP state, as well as the phase advance, both decreased with increasing frequencies of the sinewave current (Fig. 8F,G). These results indicate that although the UP state results in a general increase in responsiveness to a broad range of frequencies, the amplitude of this effect is frequency dependent.
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Discussion |
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Mechanisms of Generation of UP and DOWN states
Our results demonstrate that sustained activity in vitro is generated by barrages of EPSPs and IPSPs, owing to activity in pyramidal and non-pyramidal neurons (Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000; Shu et al., 2003
; see also Steriade et al., 1993a
). In both of these cell types the PSP barrages bring the cells close to firing threshold and in at least pyramidal cells the intermixed PSPs exhibit an average reversal potential of between 20 and 40 mV (Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000
; Shu et al., 2003
). The influence of inhibitory interneurons is critical in the generation of relatively stable periods of activity, since blocking GABAA-receptor mediated inhibition results in the transformation of recurring persistent activity into paroxysmal discharges (Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000
).
The cyclical generation of UP and DOWN states, which occurs through all areas of the cerebral cortex so far recorded, appears to occur naturally as a result of the recurrent connectivity of the cerebral cortex and the membrane and synaptic properties of the constituent elements (Metherate and Ashe, 1993; Steriade et al., 1993a
; Cowan and Wilson, 1994
; Contreras et al., 1996
; Stern et al., 1997
; Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000
; Shu et al., 2003
). A basic feature of the cerebral cortex is strong, local recurrent excitatory connections between pyramidal cells (see White, 1989
; Braitenburg and Shuz, 1998
). These recurrent excitatory connections also contact local inhibitory interneurons, which, in turn, inhibit neighboring pyramidal cells. Neuronal models indicate that this type of neuronal network architecture (recurrent excitation tempered by inhibition) can readily generate at least two states of activity, in similarity to those shown here (Amit and Brunel, 1997
; Wang, 1999
; Compte et al., 2000
; Durstewitz et al., 2000a
; Timofeev et al., 2000
; Brunel and Wang, 2001
).
The ability of cortical neurons to maintain activity while discharging at a relatively low rate presumably results from the large degree of convergence and divergence of activity within the cerebral cortex. Each cortical pyramidal cell receives 10 000 synapses, of which
2/3 to 3/4 are excitatory (see White, 1989
; Abeles, 1991
; Braitenburg and Shuz, 1998
). The fact that connections between any two pyramidal cells involve only a small number of synapses (<5) indicates that each neuron receives input from over one thousand other excitatory cells. Even a low firing rate among this multitude of neuronal inputs may yield, depending upon the strength of inhibitory mechanisms, sufficient depolarization of the postsynaptic neuron to result in maintained action potential discharge. The strong regulation of this activity through the activation of local inhibitory interneurons, as well as intrinsic hyperpolarizing currents (e.g. K+ currents) in pyramidal cells, keeps the firing rate low (see Contreras et al., 1997b
).
In our cortical slices, and during slow wave sleep or anesthesia in vivo, this neuronal activity can be expressed as a synchronized depolarization and hyperpolarization of nearly all cortical neurons, leading to so-called UP and DOWN states (Metherate and Ashe, 1993; Steriade et al., 1993a
; Cowan and Wilson, 1994
; Contreras et al., 1996
; Stern et al., 1997
; Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000
). We propose that the UP state is initiated by the generation of a burst of activity in a critical number of pyramidal cells (either through intrinsic ionic mechanisms or through recurrent excitation in a subgroup of cells) at a time in which the network has recovered from the refractory period that followed the previous UP state (Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000
; Compte et al., 2003a
). The spontaneous transition to the DOWN state then may occur owing to the build up of intrinsic K+ currents in pyramidal neurons owing to the activity generated by the UP state (Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000
; Compte et al., 2003a
). Otherwise the transition to the DOWN state may result in response to the strong activation of inhibitory neurons (Brunel and Wang, 2001
; Shu et al., 2003
) or perhaps in response to synchronized activation of a large fraction of the neurons in the network, thereby leading to a synchronized refractory period (Gutkin et al., 2001
; Shu et al., 2003
). In slices, the UP state of the slow oscillation propagates across the slice as it sequentially recruits neighboring regions of tissue into the activity (Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000
). The propagation of UP states in vivo should occur in considerably more complicated patterns, given the three dimensional structure of the brain and cortical connectivity.
Is the UP state of the slow oscillation equivalent to the maintained membrane potential and low firing rate of the cortex in the waking, but resting state? The answer to this question is not yet known. On the positive side, stimulation of the brainstem that results in activation of the EEG or the natural transition to waking both result in a loss of the DOWN state, with a maintained membrane potential of cortical cells that is similar to that of the UP state (Steriade et al., 1993b, 2001), suggesting that the UP state and the waking membrane potential have similar mechanisms of generation. However, the apparent input resistance of cortical pyramidal cells is higher during the maintained depolarized membrane potential of waking in comparison to the UP state (Steriade et al., 2001
), perhaps owing to the increased release of neuromodulatory agents (e.g. acetylcholine). Thus, the membrane potential of cortical neurons in the waking brain may be maintained in a depolarized state through both recurrent excitation as well as the actions of neuromodulators, while in the sleeping brain, the persistent activity of the UP state may be largely due to the recurrent excitatory activities alone. Either way, it is clear that nearly all or all regions of the cortex possess the intrinsic ability to generate persistent depolarized states with a relatively low firing rate through local recurrent connections a mechanism that is often used to model the generation of persistent activity in cortical networks.
Implications for the Cellular Mechanisms of Persistent Activity during Working Memory
There are two general hypotheses concerning the mechanisms of persistent activity. The first is that the activity is generated through self-sustained excitation within a neuronal network, mediated by recurrent activity. The second is that the persistent activity is generated through intrinsic membrane mechanisms, such as afterdepolarizations. These two hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, and both mechanisms may, at least theoretically, contribute.
Our results lend strong support to the hypothesis that cortical networks can generate local sustained activity through recurrent excitatory interactions. Indeed, the firing rate of our pyramidal cells during the UP state is within a similar range to that occurring during the delay period of working response memory tasks in vivo, namely from a few up to 40 Hz (Funahashi et al., 1989
; Miller et al., 1996
). Action potentials during both the UP state and during the delay period in vivo often occur in a highly variable manner, consistent with a Poisson-like process (Compte et al., 2003b
; A. Hasenstaub, C. Ghandi and D.A. McCormick, unpublished observations). Prefrontal cortical persistent activity in vivo can last for periods of seconds in delay response tasks (Fuster, 1995
). In normal slice solution, our sustained activity had a maximal duration of
4 s, although we have recently found that bath application of the h-channel blocker ZD-7288 results in a marked prolongation of UP states so that they may last for up to 1012 s (C. Ghandi and D.A. McCormick, unpublished observations). Finally computational approaches successfully model the persistent activity during both the UP state and during the delay period in working memory tasks by using recurrent excitation that is controlled with local inhibition (Wang, 1999
, 2001; Compte et al., 2000
, 2003a).
However, there are also a number of significant differences between the UP state activity studied here and the properties of persistent activity generated in vivo. First, the UP state in vitro (and during anesthesia and sleep in vivo) is characterized by barrages of synaptic activity in nearly all intracellularly recorded neurons (Metherate and Ashe, 1993; Steriade et al., 1993a
; Contreras et al., 1996
; Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000
), leading to strong increases in extracellularly recorded multiple unit activity. Although intracellular recordings in vivo have not yet been performed to examine the synaptic activity underlying delay period activity, extracellular single unit data has demonstrated that only a minority of cells discharge at an increased rate during the delay period, with many neurons not changing their firing rate, or even decreasing their discharge, during this period (Funahashi et al., 1989
). Also, in behaving monkeys, although some neighboring cortical neurons may exhibit correlated activities, others may exhibit very different patterns during the behavioral task (Constantinidis et al., 2001
). In contrast, during the UP state in vitro and in vivo, neighboring cells are often correlated in their activities. Finally, in some (but not all) recordings in vivo, the discharge rate of the cortical neuron may vary as a function of some feature of the stimulus (e.g. location, frequency) (Funahashi et al., 1989
; Romo et al., 1999
). Although action potential activity in vitro varies in intensity from UP state to UP state, this variation occurs spontaneously. One possible mechanism by which neuronal discharge rate could be continually varied in vivo is through changes in network architecture, either through the addition or subtraction of neuronal participation in the network (see Koulakov et al., 2002
), or simply through a non-uniform change in the level of activity in participating neurons.
Although there are similarities between persistent activity during working memory tasks in vivo and sustained activity generated spontaneously in vitro, there are also considerable differences. These similarities and differences indicate that while the in vitro activity may yield important information concerning the generation of persistent activity through recurrent excitation, there are important limitations to the in vitro system as a model of delay period discharge in vivo.
Intrinsic Afterdischarges do not Contribute to Persistent Activity
Another leading hypothesis as to the origin of cortical mnemonic activity is that it is generated through intrinsic membrane mechanisms. For example, cortical pyramidal cells can generate prolonged afterdischarges in the presence of high doses of neuromodulatory agents (such as non-hydrolyzable muscarinic receptor agonists) through a Ca2+-activated cation current (Andrade, 1991; Haj-Dahmane and Andrade, 1996
, 1998; Egorov et al., 2002
; Fransen et al., 2002
) or through persistent Na+ currents (Timofeev et al., 2000
).
We did not find any evidence that our persistent activity in prefrontal cortex is generated through intrinsic cellular mechanisms. Hyperpolarization or depolarization of recorded neurons did not affect the duration of the UP states nor did it affect the periodicity of the rhythm, which is matched by the duration and periodicity of activity in the extracellularly recorded network (see also Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000). In addition, the UP state is associated with a substantial increase in membrane noise and conductance, consistent with barrages of synaptic activity. Extracellular multiple unit recordings reveal strong increases in action potential discharge in neighboring neurons, which is consistent with the observed PSP barrages in the intracellularly recorded cells (see Fig. 1). Finally, block of excitatory synaptic transmission completely blocks the generation of persistent activity of the UP state (Sanchez-Vives and McCormick, 2000
), and the intracellular injection of depolarizing current pulses did not result in persistent activity in any of our cells.
The generation of afterdischarges through a Ca2+-activated cation current in single neurons in vitro is a questionable model of persistent activity generated in vivo. First, the afterdischarges generated in vitro only occur during the strong and continual stimulation of muscarinic, or other metabotropic, receptors. It is not clear that such receptor stimulation occurs in vivo. The intracellular injection of depolarizing currents in awake, sleeping, or anesthetized animals in vivo has not yet been found to result in afterdischarges in cortical neurons (e.g. Sanchez-Vives et al., 2000; Steriade, 2001
; Steriade et al., 2001
), unless K+ currents are artificially blocked with the intracellular injection of Cs+ (Contreras et al., 1997a
). Secondly, persistent activity in vivo during the performance of working memory tasks is associated with a highly variable interspike interval, which is consistent with the generation of this activity through synaptic mechanisms (Brunel and Wang, 2001
; Compte et al., 2003b
). In contrast, the generation of persistent activity through intrinsic membrane mechanisms typically results in a highly regular discharge rate (Egorov et al., 2002
). Finally, the generation of persistent activity through network mechanisms has the distinct advantage that it can be turned on and off quickly (Fig. 1; see also Brunel and Wang, 2001
), which does not appear to be the case with afterdischarges generated during constant muscarinic receptor stimulation (see Egorov et al., 2002
). At present, the most parsimonious explanation of the available data is that cortical neurons generate persistent activity in vivo largely or exclusively through recurrent excitation that is controlled by inhibition perhaps in a manner similar to that detailed here for UP state activity. We do not rule out, however, the possibility that intrinsic membrane properties also contribute. It is probable that intrinsic ionic currents, such as persistent Na+ currents (Timofeev et al., 2000
) or Ca2+-activated cation currents (Egorov et al., 2002
), that facilitate the response to excitatory inputs will also facilitate the generation of persistent recurrent network activity. In this way, we envision intrinsic ionic mechanisms to be facilitatory and regulatory, but not primary sources, of persistent activity in vivo.
Implications of Background Synaptic Activity on Gain Modulation and Attention
Cortical neurons are imbedded in a richly interconnected network and receive tens of thousands of synaptic inputs (reviewed in White, 1989; Braitenburg and Shuz, 1998
). Although many of these synaptic connections arise from local circuits, they also arise from distal cortical regions, including feedback pathways, and presumably provide a mechanism by which the responsiveness of single cortical cells can be modulated by behavioral and cortical context. Here we have demonstrated that barrages of excitatory and inhibitory synapses can result in significant changes in neuronal excitability and responsiveness. The barrages of synaptic activity associated with the UP state result in a significant increase in the responsiveness of cortical neurons to the intracellular injection of depolarizing current pulses, particularly those that were subthreshold (Fig. 3), resulting in a decrease in the slope of the inputoutput relation (Fig. 3; see also Chance et al., 2002
). This effect is mediated largely through depolarization of the membrane potential, so that inputs are more effective at driving action potentials, and through the increase in membrane noise, which changes the slope of the inputoutput relation and facilitates responses to small inputs (Chance et al., 2002
).
Changes in membrane variance (noise) will not only affect the number of spikes generated, but also spike timing. In response to constant current pulses, cortical neurons generate a relatively stereotyped pattern of action potentials that is repeatable from trial to trial (see Figs 3B and 6C). The addition of noise in this situation can have strong effects on spike timing, since the cell will spike at the peaks of the depolarizing components of the noisy current (Mainen and Sejnowski, 1995; Nowak et al., 1997
). If the noise varies from trial to trial in a random manner, then the action potentials generated during the current pulse will be smoothed, owing to a decrease in the repeatability of spike times. An additional effect of the added noise, however, is that the average histogram of the spike response is more representative of the amplitudetime course of the current pulse or low frequency sine wave input (see Figs 6C and 8). For low frequency inputs, therefore, increases in membrane variance in a population of neurons may not only increase their responses to small inputs, but also may yield a more accurate representation of the amplitude-time course of the signal.
How does background activity affect the responses to synaptic inputs? This question has been addressed with computational models (Hô and Destexhe, 2000; Destexhe et al., 2001
), through the injection of artificial conductances in cortical neurons in vitro (Hasenstaub et al., 2002
; Mitchell and Silver, 2003
), and through the activation of synaptic potentials in vivo (Timofeev et al., 1996
). These studies reveal that membrane depolarization and small to moderate increases in membrane variance may facilitate the responsiveness to synaptic inputs, especially those of lower amplitude. Increases in membrane conductance decrease neuronal responsiveness, causing an increase in threshold. For long duration inputs, increases in membrane conductance affect all inputs about equally, leading to a rightward shift in the inputoutput curve. However, if the inputs are random trains of EPSPs from a small number of cells, then increases in membrane conductance can cause a decrease in slope, or gain, of the frequency of output spike train versus the mean frequency of input EPSP rate (Mitchell and Silver, 2003
).
Functional Implications of Background Synaptic Activity
The convergence of a large number of inputs onto each cortical neuron has the functional implication that the cells activity may be strongly influenced by a wide variety of different neural circuits. This broad influence may provide a mechanism to explain diverse effects such as: (i) the ability of sensory context (i.e. far field stimuli) to modulate the response to discrete sensory stimuli (Carandini and Heeger, 1994; Angelucci et al., 2002
; Stettler et al., 2002
); (ii) the transformation of sensory to motor maps of external space (Salinas and Abbott, 1996
); (iii) increases in neuronal responsiveness with attention (McAdams and Maunsell, 1999a
,b; Hahnloser et al., 2002
); and (iv) the functional operation of feedback pathways, a common and little understood feature of cortical architecture (Hupé et al., 1998
; Hahnloser et al., 2002
). For example, the spontaneous barrages of synaptic activity associated with the UP state result in an increase in response probability to small inputs, with relatively little change in the response to larger inputs (Hasenstaub et al., 2002
). This is similar to the effects of attention on the contrast-response function curves of neurons in V4 (Reynolds et al., 2000
). Here attention results in an increase in neuronal response to low contrast (i.e. weak) stimuli, while responses to high contrast (i.e. strong) stimuli are relatively unaffected. This amplitude-dependent enhancement is similar to our findings that synaptic barrages enhance the responsiveness of cortical neurons to current pulses (Fig. 3). This suggests that barrages of synaptic activity may underlie the attentional affects observed by Reynolds et al. (2000)
.
However, in other conditions, attention can result in an enhancement of the response to all stimuli in a multiplicative manner (McAdams and Maunsell, 1999a,b; Treue and Martínez-Trujillo, 1999
). This effect of attention may also result from barrages of synaptic activity, since it has been shown that decreases in membrane variance that do not change the average membrane potential of the cell and which are balanced with decreases in membrane conductance can change neuronal gain (Hô and Destexhe, 2000
; Chance et al., 2002
). Perhaps attentional mechanisms increase neuronal responsiveness both by depolarizing some cells with barrages of synaptic activity, while increasing the gain (slope of the inputoutput relation) of other cells by decreasing membrane conductance and noise that reverses near resting membrane potential.
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Conclusions |
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Notes |
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Address correspondence to David A. McCormick, Department of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06510, USA. Email: David.mccormick{at}yale.edu.
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References |
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