Division of Cerebral Circuitry, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki 444-8787, Japan.
Department of Physiological Sciences, SOKENDAI (Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Okazaki 444-8787, Japan.
Cereb Cortex. 2017 Dec 1;27(12):5846-5857. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhx276.
A prominent feature of neocortical pyramidal cells (PCs) is their numerous projections to diverse brain areas. In layer 5 (L5) of the rat frontal cortex, there are 2 major subtypes of PCs that differ in their long-range axonal projections, corticopontine (CPn) cells and crossed corticostriatal (CCS) cells. The outputs of these L5 PCs can be regulated by feedback inhibition from neighboring cortical GABAergic cells. Two major subtypes of GABAergic cells are parvalbumin (PV)-positive and somatostatin (SOM)-positive cells. PV cells have a fast-spiking (FS) firing pattern, while SOM cells have a low threshold spike (LTS) and regular spiking. In this study, we found that the 2 PC subtypes in L5 selectively make recurrent connections with LTS cells. The connection patterns correlated with the morphological and physiological diversity of LTS cells. LTS cells with high input resistance (Ri) exhibited more compact dendrites and more rebound spikes than LTS cells with low Ri, which had vertically elongated dendrites. LTS subgroups differently inhibited the PC subtypes, although FS cells made nonselective connections with both projection subtypes. These results demonstrate a novel recurrent network of inhibitory and projection-specific excitatory neurons within the neocortex.
大脑皮层锥体神经元(PCs)的一个显著特征是它们向不同脑区发出众多投射。在大鼠前额皮质的第 5 层(L5)中,存在两种主要的 PC 亚型,它们的长程轴突投射不同,分别为皮质桥核(CPn)细胞和交叉皮质纹状体(CCS)细胞。这些 L5 PCs 的输出可以通过来自相邻皮质 GABA 能细胞的反馈抑制来调节。两种主要的 GABA 能细胞亚型是小清蛋白(PV)阳性和生长抑素(SOM)阳性细胞。PV 细胞具有快速放电(FS)的放电模式,而 SOM 细胞具有低阈值尖峰(LTS)和规则放电。在这项研究中,我们发现 L5 中的两种 PC 亚型选择性地与 LTS 细胞建立了复发性连接。连接模式与 LTS 细胞的形态和生理多样性相关。具有高输入电阻(Ri)的 LTS 细胞表现出比具有低 Ri 的 LTS 细胞更紧凑的树突和更多的反弹尖峰,而具有低 Ri 的 LTS 细胞具有垂直伸长的树突。LTS 亚群以不同的方式抑制 PC 亚型,尽管 FS 细胞与两种投射亚型均建立了非选择性连接。这些结果表明,在新皮层内存在一种新型的抑制性和投射特异性兴奋性神经元的复发性网络。