BACKGROUND The basolateral amygdala plays a critical role in the etiology of anxiety disorders and addiction. Pyramidal neurons, the primary output cells of this region, display increased firing following exposure to stressors, and it is thought that this increase in excitability contributes to stress responsivity and the expression of anxiety-like behaviors. However, much remains unknown about...

16 The activity of supragranular pyramidal neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) 17 neurons is hypothesized to be a key contributor to the cellular basis of working memory in primates. 18 Therefore, the intrinsic membrane properties, a crucial determinant of a neuron's functional properties, are 19 important for the role of DLPFC pyramidal neurons in working memory. The present ...

Cholinergic innervation of the cerebral neocortex arises from the basal forebrain and projects to all cortical regions. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE), the enzyme responsible for deactivating acetylcholine, is found within both cholinergic axons arising from the basal forebrain and a subgroup of pyramidal cells in layers III and V of the cerebral cortex. This pattern of staining varies with cortic...

We found that, in the mouse visual cortex, action potentials generated in a single layer-2/3 pyramidal (excitatory) neuron can reliably evoke large, constant-latency inhibitory postsynaptic currents in other nearby pyramidal cells. This effect is mediated by axo-axonic ionotropic glutamate receptor-mediated excitation of the nerve terminals of inhibitory interneurons, which connect to the targe...

Caption: Pyramidal neurons, light micrograph with Nissl staining. This sample, from a human brain, shows two pyramidal neurons. Pyramidal neurons (nerve cells) have a triangular cell body with dendrites leading from two of their corners and one long axon (bottom) extending from the other. The cell nuclei (round, dark) are visible here. Information from the dendrites is processed by the cell bod...

Cortical circuits consist of two major types of neurons: the excitatory pyramidal cells and the inhibitory interneurons. While pyramidal cells mostly do not differ from each other in their morphological and physiological features, interneurons show diversity of great extent. The different interneuron populations can be described with distinct morphology and in accordance with this with distinct...

In adult rats, cortical neurons that extend an exon through the pyramidal tract (a major subcortical efferent projection of the neocortex) are limited to layer V of about the rostral two-thirds of the neocortex. In neonates, however, pyramidal tract neurons are distributed throughout the neocortex, but all of those found in certain areas, such as the posterior occipital region (including primar...

Neuregulins, with the exception of neuregulin-4 (NRG4), have been shown to be extensively involved in many aspects of neural development and function and are implicated in several neurological disorders, including schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder. Here we provide the first evidence that NRG4 has a crucial function in the developing brain. We show that both the apical and basal den...

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) allows the acquisition of high-resolution images and the measurement of mechanical properties of living cells under physiological conditions. AFM cantilevers with blunted pyramidal tips are commonly used to obtain images of living cells. Measurement of mechanical properties with these tips requires a contact model that takes into account their blunted geometry. The...

Pyramidal neurons have a highly polarized dendritic morphology, characterized by one long apical dendrite and multiple short basal dendrites. They function as the primary excitatory cells of the mammalian prefrontal cortex and the corticospinal tract. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of polarized dendrite morphology in pyramidal neurons remain poorly understood. Here...