Dendritic enlightenment: using patterned two-photon uncaging to reveal the secrets of the brain's smallest dendrites.
It has been a longstanding challenge for experimentalists to manipulate precisely the spatial and temporal patterns of synaptic input to the dendritic tree in order to mimic activity occurring in the intact brain and determine their importance for synaptic integration. In this issue of Neuron, Losonczy and Magee have used rapid multisite two-photon uncaging of glutamate to define patterns of synaptic input on a submillisecond and micron scale to investigate the rules for summation of synaptic inputs in the fine oblique dendrites of pyramidal neurons.
Judkewitz
Benjamin
B
Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research and Department of Physiology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.
Roth
Arnd
A
Häusser
Michael
M
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003712:Dendrites / Q000502:physiology*; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D017785:Photons; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000502:physiology; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*
D018698:Glutamic Acid