Principal neurons of the medial superior olive (MSO) encode submillisecond differences in the arrival ofbinaural synaptic activity, information that is used for sound localization along the azimuth. Such finetemporal discrimination requires that MSO principal neurons respond to excitatory and inhibitory synapticinputs with voltage changes that are both rapid and brief. As with other neurons in time-coding auditorypathways, MSO principal neurons exhibit biophysical specializations that enable them to meet thiscomputational challenge. These specialization include the expression of low voltage activated potassiumchannels (K(lva)), which are widely expressed in brainstem time-coding auditory neurons. Previousexperiments from this lab have shown K(lva) contribute immensely to the overall excitability of primary MSOneurons. However, the biophysical properties and role these channels play in shaping excitatory andinhibitory postsynaptic potentials is still not well understood. Experiments in this proposal will help to definehow the spatial distribution and kinetic properties of K(lva) shape the sensitivity and timing of synapticintegration in principal MSO neurons.
| Scott, Luisa L; Mathews, Paul J; Golding, Nace L (2010) Perisomatic voltage-gated sodium channels actively maintain linear synaptic integration in principal neurons of the medial superior olive. J Neurosci 30:2039-50 |
