title: Hyperpolarization-activated graded persistent activity in the prefrontal cortex.
abstract: We describe a phenomenon of hyperpolarization-activated graded persistent activity (HAGPA) in prefrontal cortex neurons. Successive hyperpolarizing pulses induced increasingly higher rates of tonic firing that remained stable for tens of seconds, allowing the neuron to retain a memory of the previous history of stimulation. This phenomenon occurred at the cellular level and in the absence of neuromodulators. Neurons with HAGPA had a sag during hyperpolarization, and blocking h-current eliminated the sag and prevented HAGPA, suggesting that the activation of this hyperpolarization-activated cationic current was necessary for the occurrence of the phenomenon. A single-neuron biophysical model including h-current modulation by intracellular calcium was able to display HAGPA. This form of neuronal memory not only allows the transformation of inhibition into an increase of firing rate, but also endows neurons with a mechanism to compute the properties of successive inputs into persistent activity, thus solving a difficult computational problem.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante, Universidad Miguel Hernandez-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 03550 San Juan de Alicante, Spain.
authors.forename: Milena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Winograd
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Destexhe
authors.forename: Maria V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Sanchez-Vives
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001703:Biophysics / Q000379:methods; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D002317:Cardiovascular Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005289:Ferrets; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D008297:Male; D008564:Membrane Potentials; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D011743:Pyrimidines / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D002317:Cardiovascular Agents; D011743:Pyrimidines; C082246:ICI D2788; D002118:Calcium