Characterization of Multiple Synaptic Boutons in Cerebral Motor Cortex in Physiological and Pathological Condition: Acrobatic Motor Training Model and Traumatic Brain Injury Model

Abstract

Multiple synaptic boutons (MSBs) have been reported to be synapse with two or more postsynaptic terminals in one presynaptic terminal. These MSBs are known to be increased by various brain stimuli. In the motor cortex, increased number of MSB was observed in both acrobat training (AC) model and traumatic brain injury (TBI) model. Interestingly one is a physiological stimuli and the other is pathological insult. The purpose of this study is to compare the connectivity of MSBs between AC model and TBI model in the cerebral motor cortex, based on the hypothesis that the connectivity of MSBs might be different according to the models. The motor cortex was dissected from perfused brain of each experimental animal, the samples were prepared for routine transmission electron microscopy. The 60~70 serial sections were mounted on the one-hole grid and MSB was analyzed. The 3-dimensional analysis revealed that 94% of MSBs found in AC model synapse two postsynaptic spines from same dendrite. But, 28% MSBs from TBI models synapse two postsynaptic spines from different dendrite. This imply that the MSBs observed in motor cortex of AC model and TBI model might have different circuits for the processing the information.