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Small voltage changes at nerve terminals travel up axons to affect action potential initiation

Nature Neuroscience volume 12, pages 541–543 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Nerve terminals are generally considered to be the destination points for electrical signals, which propagate unidirectionally from the soma to nerve terminals. We found that small hyperpolarizations or depolarizations (∼10 mV) generated under physiological conditions in rat nerve terminals backpropagated up the axon (∼400–800 μm) and changed the threshold for initiating action potentials and thus firing patterns. These results suggest a mechanism for information processing in neurons and neuronal circuits.

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Figure 1: Afterhyperpolarization at the calyx reduces the ProbAP at the axon.
Figure 2: Afterdepolarization at the calyx increase axonal ProbAP.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Diamond, A. Elhamdani, B. McNeil, D. Robinson and J. Xu for insightful comments. This work was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Intramural Program and a K22 Award to K.P. (K22NS051401).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

    Kenneth Paradiso & Ling-Gang Wu

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  1. Kenneth Paradiso
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  2. Ling-Gang Wu
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Contributions

K.P. designed, performed and analyzed the experiments and wrote the manuscript. L.-G.W. supervised the project and wrote the manuscript.

Note: Supplementary information is available on the Nature Neuroscience website.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Kenneth Paradiso or Ling-Gang Wu.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–5, Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Methods and Supplementary Results (PDF 198 kb)

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Paradiso, K., Wu, LG. Small voltage changes at nerve terminals travel up axons to affect action potential initiation. Nat Neurosci 12, 541–543 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2301

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