Glutamate-activated currents in unipolar brush cells

Unipolar brush cells (UBCs) are glutamatergic interneurons present in cerebellum-like structures. In mammals, they are found in cerebellum and the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN). They receive glutamatergic mossy fiber input on an elaborate brush-like dendrite, and relay multisensory signals to granule cells through a feedforward pathway. The first studies characterizing synaptic properties of cerebellar UBCs revealed a slow-decaying biphasic excitatory post-synaptic current (EPSC) that triggered a long train of postsynaptic action potentials. Thus, UBCs seemed to be amplifying multisensory signals from mossy fibers to their target granule cells.