Parvalbumin-expressing interneurons can act solo while somatostatin-expressing interneurons act in chorus in most cases on cortical pyramidal cells.

ABSTRACT: Neural circuits in the cerebral cortex consist primarily of excitatory pyramidal (Pyr) cells and inhibitory interneurons. Interneurons are divided into several subtypes, in which the two major groups are those expressing parvalbumin (PV) or somatostatin (SOM). These subtypes of interneurons are reported to play distinct roles in tuning and/or gain of visual response of pyramidal cells in the visual cortex. It remains unclear whether there is any quantitative and functional difference between the PV → Pyr and SOM → Pyr connections. We compared unitary inhibitory postsynaptic currents (uIPSCs) evoked by electrophysiological activation of single presynaptic interneurons with population IPSCs evoked by photo-activation of a mass of interneurons in vivo and in vitro in transgenic mice in which

SUBMITTER: Safari MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5630625 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature