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Figure 5 | BMC Neuroscience

Figure 5

From: Synaptic depression and short-term habituation are located in the sensory part of the mammalian startle pathway

Figure 5

Short-term plasticity is altered during synaptic depression. A:Paired pulses applied with 50 ms interstimulus intervals (ISI) to the auditory pathway in rat brain slices revealed paired pulse facilitation (ppf). Typical EPSC traces evoked by paired pulses (with EPSC1 and EPSC2) in a PnC giant neuron under control conditions (control) and during synaptic depression (SD), immediately after application of a 100 burst sequence. Scale bars: vertical 30 pA, horizontal 30 ms. B: Mean EPSC1 amplitudes before (control) and during synaptic depression (SD). Measurements were repeated 10 times at 1 Hz and traces were subsequently averaged for each cell. The absolute EPSC1 amplitude was not changed by synaptic depression (n = 17). C: Mean paired pulse ratio (EPSC2/EPSC1) of paired pulses before (control) and during synaptic depression (HSD). The paired pulse ratio was significantly reduced during synaptic depression (n = 17). Error bars indicate S.E.M. D: Analysis of the amplitudes of the first response (gray line) within the cEPSCs elicited by 100 bursts revealed that these did not decay as much as the overall cEPSC amplitudes (filled circles) in both auditory (top) and trigeminal (bottom) synapses. During the first 20 bursts, there was no decay of the first response at all, whereas cEPSC amplitudes exponentially declined. This implicates that predominately late responses within the cEPSC are reduced, and that this reduction accounted for most of the decline in overall cEPSC amplitudes. The inset shows a typical cEPSC trace, where the single responses could be distinguished.

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