Inhibiting presynaptic calcium channel motility in the auditory cortex suppresses synchronized input processing


Methods. To investigate the relevance of Cav2.1 channel surface motility for the input processing in the primary auditory cortex (A1) in vivo, we make use of a new optogenetic system which allows for acute, reversable cross-linking Cav2.1 VGCCs via a photo-cross-linkable cryptochrome mutant, CRY2olig. In order to map neuronal activity across all cortical layers of the A1, we performed laminar current-source density (CSD) recordings with varying auditory stimulus sets in transgenic mice with a citrine tag on the N-terminus of the VGCCs
Results.Clustering VGCCs suppresses overall sensory-evoked population activity, particularly when stimuli lead to a highly synchronized distribution of synaptic inputs
Discussion. Our findings reveal the importance of membrane dynamics of presynaptic calcium channels for sensory encoding by dynamically adjusting network activity across a wide range of synaptic input strength.