@article{TEXTUAL,
      recid = {13607},
      author = {Sampathkumar, Vandana and Koster, Kevin P. and Carroll,  Briana J. and Sherman, S. Murray and Kasthuri, Narayanan},
      title = {Synaptic integration of somatosensory and motor cortical  inputs onto spiny projection neurons of mice caudoputamen},
      journal = {European Journal of Neuroscience},
      address = {2024-09-24},
      number = {TEXTUAL},
      abstract = {The basal ganglia play pivotal roles in motor control and  cognitive functioning. These nuclei are embedded in an  anatomical loop: cortex to basal ganglia to thalamus back  to cortex. We focus here on an essential synapse for  descending control, from cortical layer 5 (L5) onto the  GABAergic spiny projection neurons (SPNs) of the  caudoputamen (CP). We employed genetic labeling to  distinguish L5 neurons from somatosensory (S1) and motor  (M1) cortices in large volume serial electron microscopy  and electrophysiology datasets to better detail these  inputs. First, M1 and S1 synapses showed a strong  preference to innervate the spines of SPNs and rarely  contacted aspiny cells, which are likely to be  interneurons. Second, L5 inputs commonly converge from both  areas onto single SPNs. Third, compared to unlabeled  terminals in CP, those labeled from M1 and S1 show  ultrastructural hallmarks of strong driver synapses: They  innervate larger spines that were more likely to contain a  spine apparatus, more often had embedded mitochondria, and  more often contacted multiple targets. Finally, these  inputs also demonstrated driver-like functional properties:  SPNs responded to optogenetic activation from S1 and M1  with large EPSP/Cs that depressed and were dependent on  ionotropic but not metabotropic receptors. Together, our  findings suggest that individual SPNs integrate driver  input from multiple cortical areas with implications for  how the basal ganglia relay cortical input to provide  inhibitory innervation of motor thalamus.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/13607},
}