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AMPA autoreceptors drive correlated spiking in olfactory bulb glomeruli

Nature Neuroscience volume 5, pages 1194–1202 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Information processing in the brain may rely on temporal correlations in spike activity between neurons. Within the olfactory bulb, correlated spiking in output mitral cells could affect the odor code by either binding or amplifying signals from individual odorant receptors. We examined the timing of spike trains in mitral cells of rat olfactory bulb slices. Depolarization of mitral cell pairs elicited spikes that were correlated on a rapid timescale (≤10 ms) for cells whose primary dendrites projected to the same glomerulus. Correlated spiking was driven by a novel mechanism that depended on electrical coupling at mitral cell primary dendrites; the specific synchronizing signal was a coupled depolarization (∼20 ms) that was mediated by dendritic AMPA autoreceptors. We suggest that glomerulus-specific correlated spiking in mitral cells helps to preserve the fidelity of odor signals that are delivered to the olfactory cortex.

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Figure 1: Correlated spiking in glomerulus-specific mitral cells.
Figure 4: Correlated spiking is driven by the AMPA receptor–mediated DAMPA.
Figure 2: Mitral cells display glomerulus-specific electrical coupling.
Figure 3: Subthreshold responses in mitral cells are dominated by an AMPA receptor–mediated potential DAMPA.
Figure 5: Correlated spiking is due to electrical coupling of AMPA autoreceptor–mediated potentials.
Figure 6: Simulations of a two-mitral cell network model that incorporates AMPA autoreceptors and gap junctions.
Figure 7: Impact of local circuit inhibition on correlated spiking during NMDA-evoked responses.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Institute of Health grant NS26494 to G.L.W. We thank members of the Westbrook lab for helpful discussions.

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  1. Vollum Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, 97201, Oregon, USA

    Nathan E. Schoppa & Gary L. Westbrook

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Correspondence to Nathan E. Schoppa.

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Schoppa, N., Westbrook, G. AMPA autoreceptors drive correlated spiking in olfactory bulb glomeruli. Nat Neurosci 5, 1194–1202 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn953

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