Oxytocin Shapes Spontaneous Activity Patterns in the Developing Visual Cortex by Activating Somatostatin Interneurons.

ABSTRACT: Spontaneous network activity shapes emerging neuronal circuits during early brain development prior to sensory perception. However, how neuromodulation influences this activity is not fully understood. Here, we report that the neuromodulator oxytocin differentially shapes spontaneous activity patterns across sensory cortices. In vivo, oxytocin strongly decreased the frequency and pairwise correlations of spontaneous activity events in the primary visual cortex (V1), but it did not affect the frequency of spontaneous network events in the somatosensory cortex (S1). Patch-clamp recordings in slices and RNAscope showed that oxytocin affects S1 excitatory and inhibitory neurons similarly, whereas in V1, oxytocin targets only inhibitory neurons. Somatostatin-positive (SST⁺) interneur

SUBMITTER: Maldonado PP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7846278 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature