title: Electrical behaviour of dendritic spines as revealed by voltage imaging.
abstract: Thousands of dendritic spines on individual neurons process information and mediate plasticity by generating electrical input signals using a sophisticated assembly of transmitter receptors and voltage-sensitive ion channel molecules. Our understanding, however, of the electrical behaviour of spines is limited because it has not been possible to record input signals from these structures with adequate sensitivity and spatiotemporal resolution. Current interpretation of indirect data and speculations based on theoretical considerations are inconclusive. Here we use an electrochromic voltage-sensitive dye which acts as a transmembrane optical voltmeter with a linear scale to directly monitor electrical signals from individual spines on thin basal dendrites. The results show that synapses on these spines are not electrically isolated by the spine neck to a significant extent. Electrically, they behave as if they are located directly on dendrites.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA.|Institute for Multidisciplinary Research, Belgrade University, Belgrade 11030, Serbia.
authors.forename: Marko A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Popovic
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Carnevale
authors.affiliation: Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest H-1083, Hungary.|The Faculty of Information Technology, Pázmány Péter University, Budapest H-1083, Hungary.
authors.forename: Balazs
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rozsa
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA.|Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA.
authors.forename: Dejan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zecevic
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D049229:Dendritic Spines / Q000502:physiology*; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D061848:Optical Imaging; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D056969:Voltage-Sensitive Dye Imaging