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NEUROSCIENCE
Silent plateau potentials, rhythmic bursts, and pacemaker firing: Three patterns of activity that coexist in quadristable subthalamic neurons

Jason I. Kass ^*, , and Isabelle M. Mintz ^*, 

^*Department of Physiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611; and Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118

Edited by Charles F. Stevens, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, and approved October 27, 2005 (received for review August 5, 2005)

Subthalamic neurons display uncommon intrinsic behaviors that are likely to contribute to the motor and cognitive functions of the basal ganglia and to many of its disorders. Here, we report silent plateau potentials in these cells. These plateau responses start with a transient burst of action potentials that quickly diminish in amplitude because of spike inactivation and current shunt. The resulting interruption of spiking reveals a stable depolarization (up state) that clamps the cell membrane potential near –40 mV for several seconds. These plateau potentials coexist in single subthalamic neurons with more familiar patterns of burst and pacemaker firing. Within a narrow range of baseline membrane potentials (–67 to –60 mV), depolarization abruptly switches single cells from bistable to rhythmic bursts or tonic firing modes, thus selecting entirely distinct algorithms for integrating cortical and pallidal synaptic inputs.

basal ganglia | bistability | cortex

Conflict of interest statement: No conflicts declared.

This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.

Abbreviations: EPSP, excitatory postsynaptic potential; IPSP, inhibitory postsynaptic potential; CNQX, 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione; D-APV, D-2-amino-5-phosphonovalerate.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: i-mintz{at}northwestern.edu.

© 2006 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA

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