Antwerp Neuroscience Seminar.
Promotion zaal (Aula UIA)
May 13, 2002, 17.00
Boris Barbour
Ecole Normale Supérieure
Paris
Properties of unitary granule cell-Purkinje cell connections.
The synapses between granule cells and Purkinje cells are the most abundant of the cerebellar cortex. A rat possesses some 60 billion. These synapses are thought to store learned information enabling the cerebellum to control coordinated movements. The connection has been intensively studied as a compound synaptic input, but our recordings of unitary connections have revealed some unexpected properties. In particular, a large majority of these synapses appear to be electrically silent. Our results suggest that Purkinje cells learn to make extremely selective use of parallel fibre information.