The Axon Initial Segment is the Dominant Contributor to the Neuron's Extracellular Electrical Potential Landscape.

ABSTRACT: Extracellular voltage fields, produced by a neuron's action potentials, provide a widely used means for studying neuronal and neuronal-network function. The neuron's soma and dendrites are thought to drive the extracellular action potential (EAP) landscape, while the axon's contribution is usually considered less important. However, by recording voltages of single neurons in dissociated rat cortical cultures and Purkinje cells in acute mouse cerebellar slices through hundreds of densely packed electrodes, it is found, instead, that the axon initial segment dominates the measured EAP landscape, and, surprisingly, the soma only contributes to a minor extent. As expected, the recorded dominant signal has negative polarity (charge entering the cell) and initiates at the distal end. Interesting

SUBMITTER: Bakkum DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6420080 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature