Adaptive regulation of neuronal excitability by a voltage- independent potassium conductance

Stephen G. Brickley, Victoria Revilla, Stuart G. Cull-Candy, William Wisden and Mark Farrant ()
Additional contact information
Stephen G. Brickley: University College London
Victoria Revilla: Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Medical Research Council Centre
Stuart G. Cull-Candy: University College London
William Wisden: Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Medical Research Council Centre
Mark Farrant: University College London

Nature, 2001, vol. 409, issue 6816, 88-92

Abstract: Abstract Many neurons receive a continuous, or ‘tonic’, synaptic input, which increases their membrane conductance, and so modifies the spatial and temporal integration of excitatory signals1,2,3. In cerebellar granule cells, although the frequency of inhibitory synaptic currents is relatively low, the spillover of synaptically released GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid)4 gives rise to a persistent conductance mediated by the GABA A receptor5,6,7 that also modifies the excitability of granule cells8. Here we show that this tonic conductance is absent in granule cells that lack the α6 and δ-subunits of the GABAA receptor. The response of these granule cells to excitatory synaptic input remains unaltered, owing to an increase in a ‘leak’ conductance, which is present at rest, with properties characteristic of the two-pore-domain K+ channel TASK-1 (refs 9,10,11,12). Our results highlight the importance of tonic inhibition mediated by GABAA receptors, loss of which triggers a form of homeostatic plasticity leading to a change in the magnitude of a voltage-independent K+ conductance that maintains normal neuronal behaviour.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35051086 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:409:y:2001:i:6816:d:10.1038_35051086

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35051086

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().