Current injection and receptor-mediated excitation produce similar maximal firing rates in hypoglossal motoneurons.

ABSTRACT: The maximum firing rates of motoneurons (MNs), activated in response to synaptic drive, appear to be much lower than that elicited by current injection. It could be that the decrease in input resistance associated with increased synaptic activity (but not current injection) might blunt overall changes in membrane depolarization and thereby limit spike-frequency output. To test this idea, we recorded, in the same cells, maximal firing responses to current injection and to synaptic activation. We prepared 300 μm medullary slices in neonatal rats that contained hypoglossal MNs and used whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology to record their maximum firing rates in response to triangular-ramp current injections and to glutamate receptor-mediated excitation. Brief pressure pulses of high-conce

SUBMITTER: Wakefield HE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4808106 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature