Description:

The department of Physiology welcomes Charles Wilson, Ph.D.

Abstract: In the basal ganglia, many long range synaptic signals are inhibitory, and the postsynaptic targets of inhibition are often spontaneously active neurons. Activity in the striatal direct pathway inhibits spontaneous firing in the basal ganglia output neurons, whereas activity in the indirect pathway inhibits the spontaneous activity of globus pallidus, disinhibiting the basal ganglia output. At the level of the basal ganglia output neuron, inhibition and disinhibition both appear as changes in a continuously varying inhibitory synaptic conductance. How is the waveform of inhibitory synaptic conductance translated to changes in frequency or timing of action potentials in the postsynaptic cell? A method for predicting patterns of firing in spontaneously firing neurons in response to inhibition and disinhibition will be presented and used to predict the peristimulus time histogram of basal ganglia output neurons.