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Science 8 March 2002:
Vol. 295. no. 5561, pp. 1907 - 1910
DOI: 10.1126/science.1067903
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Reports

Dependence of EPSP Efficacy on Synapse Location in Neocortical Pyramidal Neurons

Stephen R. Williams, Greg J. Stuart*

Neurons receive thousands of synaptic inputs throughout elaborate dendritic trees. Here we determine the somatic impact of excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) generated at known dendritic sites in neocortical pyramidal neurons. As inputs became more distal, somatic EPSP amplitude decreased, whereas use-dependent depression increased. Despite marked attenuation (>40-fold), when coactivated within a narrow time window (~10 milliseconds), distal EPSPs could directly influence action potential output following dendritic spike generation. These findings reveal that distal EPSPs are ineffective sources of background somatic excitation, but through coincidence detection have a powerful transient signaling role.

Division of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: greg.stuart{at}anu.edu.au

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