Neuroscience Research Center, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany.
Neuron. 2010 Dec 22;68(6):1059-66. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.12.009.
Medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) plays an important role in physiological processes underlying navigation, learning, and memory. Excitatory cells in the different MEC layers project in a region-specific manner to the hippocampus. However, the intrinsic microcircuitry of the main excitatory cells in the superficial MEC layers is largely unknown. Using scanning photostimulation, we investigated the functional microcircuitry of two such cell types, stellate and pyramidal cells. We found cell-type-specific intralaminar and ascending interlaminar feedback inputs. The ascending interlaminar inputs display distinct organizational principles depending on the cell-type and its position within the superficial lamina: the spatial spread of inputs for stellate cells is narrower than for pyramidal cells, while inputs to pyramidal cells in layer 3, but not in layer 2, exhibit an asymmetric offset to the medial side of the cell's main axis. Differential laminar sources of excitatory inputs might contribute to the functional diversity of stellate and pyramidal cells.
内侧内嗅皮层（MEC）在导航、学习和记忆的生理过程中起着重要作用。不同 MEC 层的兴奋性细胞以特定于区域的方式投射到海马体。然而，浅层 MEC 层中主要兴奋性细胞的内在微电路在很大程度上是未知的。使用扫描光刺激，我们研究了两种这样的细胞类型，即星状细胞和锥体细胞的功能微电路。我们发现细胞类型特异性的层内和上升层间反馈输入。上升层间输入根据细胞类型及其在浅层中的位置显示出不同的组织原则：星状细胞的输入空间扩展比锥体细胞更窄，而层 3中的锥体细胞输入，但不是层 2中的输入，表现出对细胞主轴内侧的不对称偏移。兴奋性输入的不同分层来源可能有助于星状细胞和锥体细胞的功能多样性。
