Long-term potentiation in the juvenile superior colliculus requires simultaneous activation of NMDA receptors and L-type Ca2+ channels and reflects addition of newly functional synapses.

The visual layers of the rodent superficial superior colliculus (sSC) have been the focus of many development studies of the molecular bases of retinotopic map formation, the role of early retinal waves in this process, and the development of glutamate synapses. Previous studies have documented long-term potentiation (LTP), believed to be critical to developmental synapse refinement, in the rodent sSC. However, the means of induction and the preparations used have varied widely, and thus cellular changes underlying this LTP remain ambiguous. Whole-cell and perforated patch clamping were used in this study to elucidate the cellular mechanism of electrically evoked LTP in the juvenile rat sSC. This LTP required relatively low-frequency stimulation (20 Hz) and simultaneous activation of NMDA receptors and L-type Ca2+ channels. Experiments focused on narrow-field vertical neurons, a documented excitatory cell type in the stratum griseum superficiale using bipolar stimulation in the stratum opticum. Strontium (Sr2+) replacement of calcium (Ca2+) was applied to study evoked quantal events before and after LTP induction at the same synapses. Paired-pulse ratio and coefficient of variance analyses examined presynaptic release. Increases in quantal frequency were invariably found in the absence of increases in quantal amplitude and probability of release. These data suggest that electrically stimulated LTP, in the juvenile sSC after eye opening, selectively involves the addition or stabilization of AMPA receptors at the large number of silent synapses known to appear in the sSC after eye opening.