Activation and blockade of prefrontal cortical 5-hydroxytryptamine2A (5-HT2A) receptors have been linked to the action of hallucinogenic and antidepressant/antipsychotic drugs; these effects may involve modulation of glutamate release from thalamocortical afferents. Although activation of metabotropic glutamate 2 (mGlu2) receptors may suppress 5-HT-induced excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSC...

During neural development, specific recognition molecules provide the cues necessary for the formation of initial projection maps, which are reshaped later in development. In some systems, guiding cues for axonal pathfinding and target selection are provided by specific cells that are present only at critical times. For instance, the floor plate guides commissural axons in the spinal cord, and ...

Elevating cortical serotonin (5-HT) in rats with clorgyline, a monoamine oxidase A (MAO(A)) inhibitor, from postnatal day (P-0) to P-6 delays the organization of thalamocortical afferent fibers into a vibrissae-related pattern in the somatosensory cortex (S-I). Despite continued elevation of cortical 5-HT through P-8, the thalamocortical fibers do form, albeit with some delay, a characteristic ...

During the early development of the neocortex, thalamocortical axons arrive potentially in time to instruct migrating cortical neurons in several aspects of local differentiation, such as number of layer IV neurons and efferent connectivity. Migration of layer IV neurons into the cortical plate just precedes thalamocortical invasion, suggesting that these neurons could cue or tropically direct ...

The early development of thalamocortical and corticothalamic projections in hamsters was studied to compare the specificity and maturation of these pathways, and to identify potential sources of information for specification of cortical areas. The cells that constitute these projections are both generated prenatally in hamsters and they make reciprocal connections. Fluorescent dyes (DiI and DiA...

The goal of this study was to establish a structural basis for thalamic and visceral integration. We sought to define neural networks that convey visceral or integrated environmental stimuli to the diffuse thalamocortical relay system and that link periodic changes in forebrain and visceral reflex function. Our experiments were designed to determine whether afferents to the midline-intralaminar...

In the mouse somatosensory cortex, thalamocortical axons (TCAs) corresponding to individual whiskers cluster into restricted barrel domains during the first days of life. If whiskers are lesioned before that time, the cortical space devoted to the afferents from the damaged whisker shrinks and becomes occupied by thalamocortical afferents from neighboring unlesioned whiskers. This plasticity en...

The ?-axons supplying muscle spindle (MS) induce a particular pattern of activity in spindle Ia and II afferents on contraction. From a dynamic viewpoint, the Ia shows increasing spike rates, but II-afferents do not show any activity. For evaluation of nerve fiber activity, spike amplitude (SA) is suggested to measure it as well as its benefit of diagnosing clinical symptoms. This paper aims to...

The ?-axons supplying muscle spindle (MS) induce a particular pattern of activity in spindle Ia and II afferents on contraction. From a dynamic viewpoint, the Ia shows increasing spike rates, but II-afferents do not show any activity. For evaluation of nerve fiber activity, spike amplitude (SA) is suggested to measure it as well as its benefit of diagnosing clinical symptoms. This paper aims to...

The inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is thought to play an important role in activity-dependent stages of brain development. Previous studies have shown that different functional subclasses of cortical GABA-containing neurons can be distinguished by antibodies to the calcium-binding proteins parvalbumin and calbindin. Thus insight into the development of distinct subse...