Take Your PIC: motoneuronal persistent inward currents may be somatic as well as dendritic. focus on 'facilitation of somatic calcium channels can evoke prolonged tail currents in rat hypoglossal motoneurons'.

摘要

Inputs to motoneurons can be amplified and prolonged by noninactivating conductances mediating "persistent inward currents" or PICs. These currents, first identified by Schwindt and Crill (1977), are generated through voltage-dependent channels that have been thought to be confined to the membrane of the motoneuronal dendritic tree (see Heckman et al. 2003). In this issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology (Moritz et al. 2007, p. 1042-1049), Binder and colleagues use nucleated patch recordings of hypoglossal motoneurons to challenge this idea. They demonstrate that some of the findings previously taken to provide evidence for dendritic localization of these channels can in fact be seen in nucleated patches-that is, in the absence of dendritic arborizations.