title: Differential involvement of projection neurons during emergence of spontaneous activity in the developing avian hindbrain.
abstract: To better characterize the emergence of spontaneous neuronal activity in the developing hindbrain, spontaneous activity was recorded optically from defined projection neuron populations in isolated preparations of the brain stem of the chicken embryo. Ipsilaterally projecting reticulospinal (RS) neurons and several groups of vestibuloocular (VO) neurons were labeled retrogradely with Calcium Green-1 dextran amine and spontaneous calcium transients were recorded using a charge-coupled-device camera mounted on a fluorescence microscope. Simultaneous extracellular recordings were made from one of the trigeminal motor nerves (nV) to register the occurrence of spontaneous synchronous bursts of activity. Two types of spontaneous activity were observed: synchronous events (SEs), which occurred in register with spontaneous bursts in nV once every few minutes and were tetrodotoxin (TTX) dependent, and asynchronous events (AEs), which occurred in the intervals between SEs and were TTX resistant. AEs occurred developmentally before SEs and were in general smaller and more variable in amplitude than SEs. SEs appeared at the same stage as nV bursts early on embryonic day 4, first in RS neurons and then in VO neurons. All RS neurons participated equally in SEs from the outset, whereas different subpopulations of VO neurons participated differentially, both in terms of the proportion of neurons that exhibited SEs, the fidelity with which the SEs in individual neurons followed the nV bursts, and the developmental stage at which SEs appeared and matured. The results show that spontaneous activity is expressed heterogeneously among hindbrain projection neuron populations, suggesting its differential involvement in the formation of different functional neuronal circuits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, PB 1103 Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Hiraku
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mochida
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fortin
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Champagnat
authors.forename: Joel C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Glover
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000367:Age Factors; D000779:Anesthetics, Local / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D002642:Chick Embryo; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D007839:Functional Laterality; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000378:metabolism; D012249:Rhombencephalon / Q000166:cytology* / Q000196:embryology*; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D013779:Tetrodotoxin / Q000494:pharmacology; D014726:Vestibular Nuclei / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D009930:Organic Chemicals; C071336:calcium green; D013779:Tetrodotoxin