title: Time-lapse electrical recordings of single neurons from the mouse neocortex.
abstract: The ability of the brain to adapt to environmental demands implies that neurons can change throughout life. The extent to which single neurons actually change remains largely unstudied, however. To evaluate how functional properties of single neurons change over time, we devised a way to perform in vivo time-lapse electrophysiological recordings from the exact same neuron. We monitored the contralateral and ipsilateral sensory-evoked spiking activity of individual L2/3 neurons from the somatosensory cortex of mice. At the end of the first recording session, we electroporated the neuron with a DNA plasmid to drive GFP expression. Then, 2 wk later, we visually guided a recording electrode in vivo to the GFP-expressing neuron for the second time. We found that contralateral and ipsilateral evoked responses (i.e., probability to respond, latency, and preference), and spontaneous activity of individual L2/3 pyramidal neurons are stable under control conditions, but that this stability could be rapidly disrupted. Contralateral whisker deprivation induced robust changes in sensory-evoked response profiles of single neurons. Our experiments provide a framework for studying the stability and plasticity of single neurons over long time scales using electrophysiology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Institute of Life Sciences, and The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. lior.cohen7@mail.huji.ac.il
authors.forename: Lior
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Noa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Koffman
authors.forename: Hanoch
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Meiri
authors.forename: Yosef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yarom
authors.forename: Ilan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lampl
authors.forename: Adi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mizrahi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018274:Electroporation; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory / Q000502:physiology*; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D019579:Neocortex / Q000166:cytology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D010812:Physical Stimulation; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins