ArticleCerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)2023
Strong and reliable synaptic communication between pyramidal neurons in adult human cerebral cortex.
Article in Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 91 citations in OpenAlex.
- Regional specialization of upper-layer inhibitory interneuron organization in the human prefrontal cortex.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- Dendritic morphology and synaptic nonlinearities enhance functional complexity in human cortical neurons.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- DuBois-Reymond prize lecture 2024: Multi-neuron patch-clamp to uncover the neuronal and synaptic physiology in the human neocortex.Pflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology · 2026Article
- Transport-related effects on intrinsic and synaptic properties of human cortical neurons: A comparative study.The Journal of physiology · 2026Article
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- Electrophysiological classification of human layer 2-3 pyramidal neurons reveals subtype-specific synaptic interactions.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- HCN channels reveal conserved and divergent physiology in supragranular pyramidal neurons in primate species.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Rhythmic network activity in human brain slices: variability, mechanisms, and translational insights.Frontiers in synaptic neuroscience · 2026Review
- Spatial characterization of backpropagating action potential-evoked CaFrontiers in synaptic neuroscience · 2026Article
- New directions for complex systems in contemporary neuroscience: a morphodynamic and emergent function approach.Frontiers in computational neuroscience · 2026Review
- Evolutionary neuroeconomic adaptations of fast-spiking neurons in the human neocortex.Frontiers in synaptic neuroscience · 2026Review
- Ripple contributions to human memory: making the spiking content count.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2025Review
- Ultrastructural membrane dynamics of mouse and human cortical synapses.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Gamma-band synchronization between neurons in the visual cortex is causal for effective information processing and behavior.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Laser microsurgery for presynaptic interrogation.Nature protocols · 2025Review
- Of mice and men: Dendritic architecture differentiates human from mouse neuronal networks.iScience · 2025Article
- Spine loss in depression impairs dendritic signal integration in human cortical microcircuit models.iScience · 2025Article
- Article
- Synaptic transmission in supragranular layers of the human cortex - comparative review of structure, function, and plasticity.Frontiers in synaptic neuroscience · 2025Review
- Resource-dependent heterosynaptic spike-timing-dependent plasticity in recurrent networks with and without synaptic degeneration.Frontiers in computational neuroscience · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
27 authors at 6 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Synaptic transmission constitutes the primary mode of communication between neurons. It is extensively studied in rodent but not human neocortex. We characterized synaptic transmission between pyramidal neurons in layers 2 and 3 using neurosurgically resected human middle temporal gyrus (MTG, Brodmann area 21), which is part of the distributed language circuitry. We find that local connectivity is comparable with mouse layer 2/3 connections in the anatomical homologue (temporal association area), but synaptic connections in human are 3-fold stronger and more reliable (0% vs 25% failure rates, respectively). We developed a theoretical approach to quantify properties of spinous synapses showing that synaptic conductance and voltage change in human dendritic spines are 3-4-folds larger compared with mouse, leading to significant NMDA receptor activation in human unitary connections. This model prediction was validated experimentally by showing that NMDA receptor activation increases the amplitude and prolongs decay of unitary excitatory postsynaptic potentials in human but not in mouse connections. Since NMDA-dependent recurrent excitation facilitates persistent activity (supporting working memory), our data uncovers cortical microcircuit properties in human that may contribute to language processing in MTG.
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