Slow Synaptic Inhibition in Nucleus HVc of the Adult Zebra Finch
- Creators
- Schmidt, Marc F.
- Perkel, David J.
Abstract
Nervous systems process information over a broad range of time scales and thus need corresponding cellular mechanisms spanning that range. In the avian song system, long integration times are likely necessary to process auditory feedback of the bird's own vocalizations. For example, in nucleus HVc, a center that contains both auditory and premotor neurons and that is thought to act as a gateway for auditory information into the song system, slow inhibitory mechanisms appear to play an important role in the processing of auditory information. These long-lasting processes include inhibitory potentials thought to shape auditory selectivity and a vocalization-induced inhibition of auditory responses lasting several seconds. To investigate the possible cellular mechanisms of these long-lasting inhibitory processes, we have made intracellular recordings from HVc neurons in slices of adult zebra finch brains and have stimulated extracellularly within HVc. A brief, high-frequency train of stimuli (50 pulses at 100 Hz) could elicit a hyperpolarizing response that lasted 2–20 sec. The slow hyperpolarization (SH) could still be elicited in the presence of glutamate receptor blockers, suggesting that it does not require polysynaptic excitation. Three major components contribute to this activity-induced SH: a long-lasting GABA_B receptor-mediated IPSP, a slow afterhyperpolarization requiring action potentials but not Ca²⁺ influx, and a long-lasting IPSP, the neurotransmitter and receptor of which remain unidentified. These three slow hyperpolarizing events are well placed to contribute to the observed inhibition of HVc neurons after singing and could shape auditory feedback during song learning.
Additional Information
© 1998 Society for Neuroscience. Received Sept. 4, 1997; revised Nov. 17, 1997; accepted Nov. 19, 1997. This work was supported by a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellowship to D.J.P., as well as grants from National Institutes of Health (NRSA DC00125 and RO3DC03041 to M.F.S. and RO3 DC02477 to D.J.P.). We thank Drs. Gilles Laurent, Anthony Leonardo, and Mark Konishi, as well as members of the Perkel laboratory, for helpful comments on this manuscript. We also thank Mark Konishi, in whose laboratory many of these experiments were performed, for his valuable support and advice.Attached Files
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC6792757
- Eprint ID
- 99562
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20191030-140101016
- Helen Hay Whitney Foundation
- DC00125
- NIH Predoctoral Fellowship
- RO3DC03041
- NIH
- RO3DC02477
- NIH
- Created
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2019-10-30Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field