The postnatal development of refractory periods and threshold potentials at cerebellar Purkinje neurons

Cerebellum is involved in the motion coordination and working memory, to which spike programming at Purkinje neurons are essential. The development of Purkinje neurons in the embryonic stage has been well studied. However, it is not clear about the maturation of their intrinsic property related to spike programming during postnatal period. We developed the approach to quantify the intrinsic property of sequential spikes with whole-cell recording, and analyzed the postnatal development of Purkinje neurons in cerebellar slices. Our results demonstrate that the threshold potentials shift toward more negatively than resting membrane potential, refractory periods following each of spikes decrease, as well as the relationship between refractory periods and inter-spike intervals converts to be more linear during the postnatal maturation. This postnatal plasticity of neuronal intrinsic properties enhances the firing ability and spike capacity, in turn strengthens spike programming, at cerebellar Purkinje neurons.