大鼠視丘腹後側核神經元動作電位波型的分析與比較

Abstract

大鼠視丘的腹後側核 ( VPL, ventral posterolateral thalamic nuclei ) 是傳遞體感覺的重要中繼站，包含具有不同形態與電生理特徵的神經元，這些神經元具有不同的動作電位波型，對體感覺與痛覺刺激產生的反應亦有所不同。本研究在探討大鼠視丘腹後側核區中不同神經元動作電位波型的特徵，並利用波型差異將神經元分群，及比較使用不同微電極 (金屬、玻璃) 記錄時是否造成分類差異，此外更進一步研究波型與神經元功能群之間的關係。研究結果顯示： 一、VPL 的波型主要可依照振幅、歷時長短等特徵分為四類；二、不同記錄電極會影響記錄到的波型種類；三、VPL 的神經元在本研究中主要觀察到 low threshold 與 wide dynamic range 兩種功能群，但此兩種功能群並沒有特定的對應波型。

The ventral posterolateral thalamic nucleus ( VPL ) plays an important role in conveying the somatosensory signals. It contains different sorts of neurons which may generate diverse action potential waveforms, their reactions to innocuous or noxious stimuli also diverge. This study investigates the classification of action potential waveforms in VPL, the relationship between different recording microelectrodes or functional groups and waveforms were further compared. The result shows that VPL waveforms could be divided into four main groups by the features such as the peak-to-peak amplitude, the peak-to-peak duration, etc. The materials of recording microelectrodes affect the kinds of waveforms being collected. However, the different functional groups of VPL neurons do not correspond to particular kinds of waveforms.