Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, 11724, USA; Laboratory of Cerebral Cortex Research, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 43. Szigony Street, Budapest, H-1083, Hungary.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, 11724, USA.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2014 Jun;26:117-24. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2014.01.007. Epub 2014 Feb 4.
The exquisite architecture of cortex incorporates a myriad of inhibitory interneuron types. Until recently, the dearth of techniques for cell type identification in awake animals has made it difficult to link interneuron activity with circuit function, computation and behavior. This situation has changed dramatically in recent years with the advent of novel tools for targeting genetically distinct interneuron types so their activity can be observed and manipulated. The association of different interneuron subtypes with specific circuit functions, such as gain modulation or disinhibition, is starting to reveal canonical circuit motifs conserved across neocortical regions. Moreover, it appears that some interneuron types are recruited at specific behavioral events and likely control the flow of information among and within brain areas at behavioral time scales. Based on these results we propose that interneuron function goes beyond network coordination and interneurons should be viewed as integral elements of cortical computations serving behavior.
大脑皮层的精妙结构包含了无数种抑制性中间神经元。直到最近，由于缺乏在清醒动物中识别细胞类型的技术，使得将中间神经元的活动与回路功能、计算和行为联系起来变得非常困难。近年来，随着针对特定中间神经元类型的新型靶向工具的出现，这种情况发生了巨大变化，因此可以观察和操纵它们的活动。不同中间神经元亚型与特定回路功能（如增益调节或去抑制）的关联开始揭示出在整个新皮质区域中保守的典型回路模式。此外，似乎某些中间神经元类型在特定行为事件中被招募，并可能在行为时间尺度上控制大脑区域之间和内部的信息流动。基于这些结果，我们提出中间神经元的功能不仅仅是网络协调，而应该将中间神经元视为服务于行为的皮质计算的固有组成部分。
