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First published online on November 21, 2003.
Copyright © 2003 by The Physiological Society
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jphysiol.2003.056523v1
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Philippe Isope
Romain Franconville
Boris Barbour
Philippe Ascher
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Received October 9, 2003
Revised October 30, 2003
Accepted after revision November 20, 2003

Repetitive firing of rat cerebellar parallel fibres after a single stimulation

Philippe Isope1, Romain Franconville2, Boris Barbour2, and Philippe Ascher3*

1 University of British Columbia
2 Ecole normale supérieure
3 CNRS UMR 8118

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ascher{at}biomedicale.univ-paris5.fr.

The excitatory post-synaptic currents (epscs) evoked in Purkinje cells (PCs) by stimulating parallel fibres (PFs) usually show a single peak, but epscs with multiple peaks (polyphasic epscs) can be observed in slices from animals older than 15 days.The epscs remain polyphasic when the post-synaptic current is reduced (either by reducing the intensity of the PF stimulation or by adding AMPA receptor antagonists) and when the PC membrane potential is made positive. Thus the late peaks are not due to post-synaptic active currents generated in the imperfectly-clamped PC, and must arise from repetitive action potentials in the PF. Extracellular recordings from granule cell (GC) somata showed that a single PF stimulation can elicit a doublet or a train of action potentials. Both the late action potentials recorded in the GCs and the late peaks of the polyphasic epscs recorded in the PCs were reduced or abolished by paired-pulse stimulation of the PF or by bath application of the GABA-A agonist muscimol. The late action potentials in the GCs were also suppressed by local application of muscimol around the cell body. We propose that after a single stimulation of a PF, the antidromic invasion of the ascending axon and the granule cell can trigger a doublet or a burst of action potentials which back-propagate into the PF (except for the first which finds the PF still in its refractory period). The repetitive activation of the PF by a single stimulation could play a role in the induction of long-term depression.


Key words: Burst firing • Cerebellum • Purkinje cells







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