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Although pyramidal cells are the main excitatory neurons in the cerebral cortex, it has recently been reported that they can evoke inhibitory postsynaptic currents in neighboring pyramidal neurons. These inhibitory effects were proposed to be mediated by putative axo-axonic excitatory synapses between the axon terminals of pyramidal cells and perisomatic inhibitory axon terminals [Ren M, Yoshimura Y, Takada N, Horibe S, Komatsu Y (2007) Science 316:758-761]. However, the existence of this type of axo-axonic synapse was not found using serial section electron microscopy. Instead, we observed that inhibitory axon terminals synapsing on pyramidal cell bodies were frequently apposed by terminals that established excitatory synapses with neighbouring dendrites. We propose that a spillover of glutamate from these excitatory synapses can activate the adjacent inhibitory axo-somatic terminals.

Certain cognitive functions differ in men and women, although the anatomical and functional substrates underlying these differences remain unknown. Because neocortical activity is directly related with higher brain function, numerous studies have focused on the cerebral cortex when searching for possible structural correlates of cognitive gender differences. However, there are no studies on possible gender differences at the synaptic level. In the present work we have used stereological and correlative light and electron microscopy to show that men have a significantly higher synaptic density than women in all cortical layers of the temporal neocortex. These differences may represent a microanatomical substrate contributing to the functional gender differences in brain activity. © 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA.