Kaneda, Katsuyuki and Hitoshi Kita. Synaptically released GABA activates both pre-and postsynaptic GABA B receptors in the rat globus pallidus. J Neurophysiol 94: 1104 -1114, 2005; doi:10.1152/jn.00255.2005. The globus pallidus (GP) contains abundant GABAergic synapses and GABA B receptors. To investigate whether synaptically released GABA can activate pre-and postsynaptic GABA B receptors in the GP, physiological recordings were performed using rat brain slice preparations. Cell-attached recordings from GABA A antagonist-treated preparations revealed that repetitive local stimulation induced a GABA B antagonist-sensitive pause in spontaneous firings of GP neurons. Whole cell recordings revealed that the repetitive stimulation evoked fast excitatory postsynaptic potentials followed by a slow inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP) in GP neurons. The slow IPSP was insensitive to a GABA A receptor antagonist, increased in amplitude with the application of ionotropic glutamate receptor antagonists, and was suppressed by the GABA B antagonist CGP55845. The reversal potential of the slow IPSP was close to the potassium equilibrium potential. These results suggest that synaptically released GABA activated postsynaptic GABA B receptors and induced the pause and the slow IPSP. On the other hand, in the neurons that were treated to block postsynaptic GABA B responses, CGP55845 increased the amplitudes of repetitive local stimulationinduced GABA A -mediated inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) but not the ionotropic glutamate-mediated excitatory postsynaptic currents. Moreover, the GABA B receptor specific agonist baclofen reduced the frequency of miniature IPSCs without altering their amplitude distributions. These results suggest that synaptically released GABA also activated presynaptic GABA B autoreceptors, resulting in decreased GABA release in the GP. Together, we infer that both pre-and postsynaptic GABA B receptors may play crucial roles in the control of GP neuronal activity.