The Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 83 No. 2 February 2000, pp. 746-753
Copyright ©2000 by the American Physiological Society

Low-Voltage-Activated Calcium Current Does Not Regulate the Firing Behavior in Paired Mechanosensory Neurons With Different Adaptation Properties

Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4H7, Canada

Sekizawa, Shin-Ichi, Andrew S. French, and Päivi H. Torkkeli. Low-Voltage-Activated Calcium Current Does Not Regulate the Firing Behavior in Paired Mechanosensory Neurons With Different Adaptation Properties. J. Neurophysiol. 83: 746-753, 2000. Low-voltage-activated Ca²⁺ currents (LVA-I_Ca) are believed to perform several roles in neurons such as lowering the threshold for action potentials, promoting burst firing and oscillatory behavior, and enhancing synaptic excitation. They also may allow rapid increases in intracellular Ca²⁺ concentration. We discovered LVA-I_Ca in both members of paired mechanoreceptor neurons in a spider, where one neuron adapts rapidly (Type A) and the other slowly (Type B) in response to a step stimulus. To learn if I_Ca contributed to the difference in adaptation behavior, we studied the kinetics of I_Ca from isolated somata under single-electrode voltage-clamp and tested its physiological function under current clamp. LVA-I_Ca was large enough to fire single action potentials when all other voltage-activated currents were blocked, but we found no evidence that it regulated firing behavior. LVA-I_Ca did not lower the action potential threshold or affect firing frequency. Previous experiments have failed to find Ca²⁺-activated K⁺ current (I_K(Ca)) in the somata of these neurons, so it is also unlikely that LVA-I_Ca interacts with I_K(Ca) to produce oscillatory behavior. We conclude that LVA-Ca²⁺ channels in the somata, and possible in the dendrites, of these neurons open in response to the depolarization caused by receptor current and by the voltage-activated Na⁺ current (I_Na) that produces action potential(s). However, the role of the increased intracellular Ca²⁺ concentration in neuronal function remains enigmatic.