PMID: 9550193Apr 29, 1998Paper

Species-dependence and relationship of morphological and electrophysiological properties in nigral compacta neurons

Progress in Neurobiology
R Kötter, M Feizelmeier

Abstract

The use of animal models in studying disorders of dopaminergic transmission in humans, such as Parkinson's disease, depends on the assumption that morphological and electrophysiological properties of dopaminergic neurons in the pars compacta of the substantia nigra are relatively constant from rodents to monkeys and humans. While the electrophysiological properties of nigral dopaminergic neurons are highly characteristic and appear to be remarkably uniform, morphological studies of nigral compacta neurons have shown significant size differences across mammalian species. This discrepancy between morphological and electrophysiological characteristics could be reconciled if scaling of neuronal size between species was such that intrinsic properties and responses to afferent inputs would not be affected. We review the principles of morphological scaling of compacta neurons and address this problem by construction and analysis of specific passive and active membrane models. These demonstrate that the size differences between compacta neurons from rats to primates lead to distinct intrinsic electrophysiological properties and that even conservative scaling is not sufficient to ensure constant activity patterns unless further compensa...Continue Reading

Citations

Mar 2, 1999·Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography·H D GageJ C Eisenach
Apr 7, 2020·PLoS Computational Biology·David M RichardsJoel Tabak
Apr 26, 2005·Journal of Biomedical Optics·Rolf KötterJochen F Staiger

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