The Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 86 No. 5 November 2001, pp. 2435-2444
Copyright ©2001 by the American Physiological Society

Apical and Basal Orthodromic Population Spikes in Hippocampal CA1 In Vivo Show Different Origins and Patterns of Propagation

Department of Physiology and Clinical Neurological Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5A5, Canada

Kloosterman, Fabian, Pascal Peloquin, and L. Stan Leung. Apical and Basal Orthodromic Population Spikes in Hippocampal CA1 In Vivo Show Different Origins and Patterns of Propagation. J. Neurophysiol. 86: 2435-2444, 2001. There is controversy concerning whether orthodromic action potentials originate from the apical or basal dendrites of CA1 pyramidal cells in vivo. The participation of the dendrites in the initialization and propagation of population spikes in CA1 of urethan-anesthetized rats in vivo was studied using simultaneously recorded field potentials and current source density (CSD) analysis. CSD analysis revealed that the antidromic population spike, evoked by stimulation of the alveus, invaded in succession, the axon initial segment (stratum oriens), cell body and ~200 µm of the proximal apical dendrites. Excitation of the basal dendrites of CA1, following stimulation of CA3 stratum oriens, evoked an orthodromic spike that started near the cell body or initial segment and then propagated ~200 µm into the proximal apical dendrites. In contrast, the population spike that followed excitation of the apical dendrites of CA1 initiated at the proximal apical dendrites, 50-100 µm distal to the cell body layer, and then propagated centripetally to the cell body and the proximal basal dendrites. A late apical dendritic spike may arise in the mid-apical dendrites (250-300 µm from the cell layer) and propagated distally. The origin or the pattern of propagation of each population spike type was similar for near-threshold to supramaximal stimulus intensities. In summary, population spikes following apical dendritic and basal dendritic excitation in vivo appeared to originate from different locations. Apical dendritic excitation evoked a population spike that initiated in the proximal apical dendrites while basal dendritic excitation evoked a spike that started near the initial segment or cell body. An original finding of this study is the propagation of the population spike from basal to apical dendrites in vivo or vice versa. This backpropagation from one dendritic tree to the other may play an important role in the synaptic plasticity among a network of CA3 to CA1 neurons.