One distinctive feature of Purkinje cells is that they have two types of discharge: in addition to simple spikes they fire complex spikes in response to input from the climbing fibers. These complex spikes have an initial rapid burst of spikes and spikelets followed by a sustained depolarization; in some models of cerebellar function this climbing fiber input supervises learning in Purkinje cel...

We recorded all-night electroencephalograms (EEGs)/polysomnograms on 2 consecutive nights from 4 children (ages 4-11 years) with Rett syndrome. The first 10 sec of each 60 sec epoch were analyzed with counts of left and right hemisphere spikes and correlated with sleep stage. Spike counts were lowest during wakefulness. Spikes were most frequent over parasagittal regions during all sleep stages...

We consider the problem " 2 u ? u + f (u) = 0 in u > 0 in ; @u @ = 0 on @; (0.1) where is a bounded smooth domain in R N , " > 0 is a small parameter and f is a superlinear, subcritical nonlinearity. It is known that this equation possesses multiple boundary spike solutions that concentrate, as " approaches zero, at multiple critical points of the mean curvature function H(P); P 2 @. It is also...

Several early studies suggested that spikes can be generated in the dendrites of CA1 pyramidal neurons, but their functional significance and the conditions under which they occur remain poorly understood. Here, we provide direct evidence from simultaneous dendritic and somatic patch-pipette recordings that excitatory synaptic inputs can elicit dendritic sodium spikes prior to axonal action pot...

To study cerebellar activity during learning, we made whole-cell recordings from larval zebrafish Purkinje cells while monitoring fictive swimming during associative conditioning. Fish learned to swim in response to visual stimulation preceding tactile stimulation of the tail. Learning was abolished by cerebellar ablation. All Purkinje cells showed task-related activity. Based on how many compl...

Small discrete spikes appearing on the electrocardiogram (ECG) of a man with a pacemaker turned out to be fasciculation potentials picked up from leg muscles. To find out how common these spikes were all routine ECGs made in one month were reviewed. Spike potentials were found in six patients, and in each case they originated from somatic musculature. Spikes could nearly always be detected on E...

The contribution of various electroencephalographic electrodes in detecting spikes from patients with seizures of suspected anterior temporal origin was prospectively studied with a standard protocol. The following electrodes were studied: International Standard 10-20 positions F7-8 and A1-2, sphenoidal (SP), nasopharyngeal (NP), anterior temporal (T1-2), mandibular notch surface (MNS), and man...

What is the function of dendritic spikes? One might argue that they provide conditions for neuronal plasticity or that they are essential for neural computation. However, despite a long history of dendritic research, the physiological relevance of dendritic spikes in brain function remains unknown. This could stem from the fact that most studies on dendrites have been performed in vitro. Fortun...

Large-scale analysis of the GC-content distribution at the gene level reveals both common features and basic differences in genomes of different groups of species. Sharp changes in GC content are detected at the transcription boundaries for all species analyzed, including human, mouse, rat, chicken, fruit fly, and worm. However, two substantially distinct groups of GC-content profiles can be re...

Cartwheel cells are glycinergic interneurons that modify somatosensory input to the dorsal cochlear nucleus. They are characterized by firing of mixtures of both simple and complex action potentials. To understand what ion channels determine the generation of these two types of spike waveforms, we recorded from cartwheel cells using the gramicidin perforated-patch technique in brain slices of m...