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. 2016 Sep 8;7:12826. doi: 10.1038/ncomms12826

Figure 7. Modulation of synaptic plasticity by nAChRs in human neocortex is layer-specific.

Figure 7

(a) Summary of tLTP experiments in human L2/3 pyramidal neurons in control conditions (open grey square) and experiments where ACh was present in the bath during pairing (open green circle). Control: n=8 (6 patients), Ach: n=9 (6 patients). (b) Top right traces: Example EPSP waveforms recorded during baseline (light color) and 20–25 min. after pairing (dark color), for tLTP experiments with and without ACh present in bath during pairing. Scale bars, 3 mV, 30 ms. (c) Membrane potential change over course of pairing period (grey shading) relative to baseline for experiments where ACh was washed-in during pairing (mean±s.e.m., 14 s bins). Scale bars, 5 mV, 2 min. (d) Summary bar chart showing change in EPSP slope of control tLTP and ACh tLTP experiments in human L2/3 neurons (mean±s.e.m.). One-way ANOVA: F(1,15)=6.857, P=0.019; control: n=8 (six patients), Ach: n=9 (six patients). (e–h) As a–d, for nAChR-bearing human L6 pyramidal neurons. In these experiments, ACh was applied using a continuous local application aimed at somato-dendritic regions of the neuron, from onset to offset of pairing period. One-way ANOVA: F(1,11)=5.72, P=0.036; control: n=7 (seven patients), Ach: n=6 (four patients).