Ic. Kleppe et Hpc. Robinson, Determining the activation time course of synaptic AMPA receptors from openings of colocalized NMDA receptors, BIOPHYS J, 77(3), 1999, pp. 1418-1427
Excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) in most mammalian central neurons
have a fast alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoazole-proprionic acid (AMPA
) receptor-mediated component, lasting a few milliseconds, and a slow N-met
hl-(D-aspartic acid (NMDA)-receptor-mediated component, lasting hundreds of
milliseconds. The time course of the AMPA phase is crucial in the integrat
ive function of neurons, but measuring it accurately is often confounded by
cable filtering between the recording electrode and the synapse. We descri
be a method for recovering the AMPA phase of individual EPSCs by determinin
g the impulse response of the cable filter from single NMDA channel transit
ions in the slow tails of the same EPSC, then deconvolving the measured AMP
A current. Using simulations, we show that filtering of an AMPA conductance
transient in a voltage-clamped dendrite behaves in an almost perfectly lin
ear fashion. Expressions are derived for the time course of single channel
transitions and the AMPA phase filtered through a voltage-clamped cable or
a single exponential filter, using a kinetic model for AMPA receptor activa
tion. Fitting these expressions to experimental records directly estimates
the underlying kinetics of the AMPA phase. Example measurements of spontane
ous EPSCs in cultured nonpyramidal rat cortical neurons yielded rising time
constants of 0.2-0.8 ms, and decay time constants of 1.3-2 ms at 23-25 deg
rees C.