title: A rat brain slice preparation for characterizing both thalamostriatal and corticostriatal afferents.
abstract: The striatum, the primary input nucleus of the basal ganglia, is crucially involved in motor and cognitive function and receives significant glutamate input from the cortex and thalamus. Increasing evidence suggests fundamental differences between these afferents, yet direct comparisons have been lacking. We describe a slice preparation that allows for direct comparison of the pharmacology and biophysics of these two pathways. Visualization of slices from animals previously injected with BDA into the parafascicular nucleus revealed the presence of axons of thalamic origin in the slice. These axons were especially well-preserved after traversing the reticular nucleus, the location chosen for stimulation of thalamostriatal afferents. Initial characterization of the two pathways revealed both non-NMDA and NMDA receptor-mediated currents at synapses from both afferents and convergence of the afferents in 51% of striatal efferent neurons. Annihilation of action potentials was not observed in collision experiments, nor was current spread from the site of stimulation to striatum found. Differences in short-term plasticity suggest that the probability of release differs for the two inputs. The present work thus provides a novel rat brain slice preparation in which the effects of selective stimulation of cortical versus thalamic afferents to striatum can be studied in the same preparation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Utah, UT, United States.
authors.forename: Roy M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Smeal
authors.forename: Renee C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Gaspar
authors.forename: Kristen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Keefe
authors.forename: Karen S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Wilcox
mesh_terms: D000344:Afferent Pathways; D000818:Animals; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004594:Electrophysiology; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000502:physiology; D013788:Thalamus / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate