Work

Graded spikes differentially signal neurotransmitter input in cerebrospinal fluid contacting neurons of the mouse spinal cord

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: The action potential and its all-or-none nature is fundamental to neural communication. Canonically the action potential is initiated once voltage-gated Na + channels are activated, and their rapid kinetics of activation and inactivation give rise to the action potential’s all-or-none nature. Here we show that cerebrospinal fluid contacting neurons (CSFcNs) surrounding the central canal of the mouse spinal cord employ a different strategy. Rather than using voltage-gated Na + channels to generate binary spikes, CSFcNs use two different types of voltage-gated Ca 2+ channel, enabling spikes of different amplitude. T-type Ca 2+ channels generate small amplitude spikes, whereas large amplitude spikes require high voltage-activated Cd 2+ sensitive Ca 2+ channels. We show that these different amplitude spikes signal input from different transmitter systems; purinergic inputs evoke smaller T-type dependent spikes while cholinergic inputs evoke large T-type independent spikes. Different synaptic inputs to CSFcNs can therefore be signalled by the spike amplitude.

Source: iScience

DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105914