Rojas-Piloni Gerardo, Guest Jason M, Egger Robert, Johnson Andrew S, Sakmann Bert, Oberlaender Marcel
Digital Neuroanatomy, Max Planck Florida Institute of Neuroscience, 1 Max-Planck-Way, Jupiter, FL, 33458, USA.
Departamento de Neurobiología del Desarrollo y Neurofisiología, Instituto de Neurobiología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Boulevard Juriquilla 3001, Campus UNAM-Juriquilla, Querétaro, 76230, Mexico.
Nat Commun. 2017 Oct 11;8(1):870. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00971-0.
Pyramidal tract neurons (PTs) represent the major output cell type of the neocortex. To investigate principles of how the results of cortical processing are broadcasted to different downstream targets thus requires experimental approaches, which provide access to the in vivo electrophysiology of PTs, whose subcortical target regions are identified. On the example of rat barrel cortex (vS1), we illustrate that retrograde tracer injections into multiple subcortical structures allow identifying the long-range axonal targets of individual in vivo recorded PTs. Here we report that soma depth and dendritic path lengths within each cortical layer of vS1, as well as spiking patterns during both periods of ongoing activity and during sensory stimulation, reflect the respective subcortical target regions of PTs. We show that these cellular properties result in a structure-function parameter space that allows predicting a PT's subcortical target region, without the need to inject multiple retrograde tracers.The major output cell type of the neocortex - pyramidal tract neurons (PTs) - send axonal projections to various subcortical areas. Here the authors combined in vivo recordings, retrograde tracings, and reconstructions of PTs in rat somatosensory cortex to show that PT structure and activity can predict specific subcortical targets.
锥体束神经元（PTs）是新皮层的主要输出细胞类型。因此，要研究皮层处理结果如何被传递到不同下游靶点的原理，就需要实验方法，以便能够获取已确定其皮层下靶点区域的PTs的体内电生理学信息。以大鼠桶状皮层（vS1）为例，我们证明向多个皮层下结构注射逆行示踪剂能够识别在体内记录的单个PTs的长轴突靶点。我们在此报告，vS1各皮层层内的胞体深度和树突路径长度，以及持续活动期和感觉刺激期的放电模式，都反映了PTs各自的皮层下靶点区域。我们表明，这些细胞特性形成了一个结构 - 功能参数空间，能够预测PT的皮层下靶点区域，而无需注射多种逆行示踪剂。新皮层的主要输出细胞类型——锥体束神经元（PTs）——向各种皮层下区域发送轴突投射。本文作者结合了大鼠体感皮层中PTs的体内记录、逆行示踪和重建，以表明PT的结构和活动能够预测特定的皮层下靶点。
