Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA; IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, Beijing Frontier Research Center of Biological Structures, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA.
Neuron. 2019 Oct 23;104(2):385-401.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.06.028. Epub 2019 Jul 29.
The frontal area of the cerebral cortex provides long-range inputs to sensory areas to modulate neuronal activity and information processing. These long-range circuits are crucial for accurate sensory perception and complex behavioral control; however, little is known about their precise circuit organization. Here we specifically identified the presynaptic input neurons to individual excitatory neuron clones as a unit that constitutes functional microcircuits in the mouse sensory cortex. Interestingly, the long-range input neurons in the frontal but not contralateral sensory area are spatially organized into discrete vertical clusters and preferentially form synapses with each other over nearby non-input neurons. Moreover, the assembly of distant presynaptic microcircuits in the frontal area depends on the selective synaptic communication of excitatory neuron clones in the sensory area that provide inputs to the frontal area. These findings suggest that highly precise long-range reciprocal microcircuit-to-microcircuit communication mediates frontal-sensory area interactions in the mammalian cortex.
大脑皮层的额区为感觉区提供长程输入，以调节神经元的活动和信息处理。这些长程回路对于准确的感觉感知和复杂的行为控制至关重要；然而，它们的确切回路组织却知之甚少。在这里，我们特别鉴定了作为构成小鼠感觉皮层功能微回路的单元的单个兴奋性神经元克隆的突触前输入神经元。有趣的是，长程输入神经元在前额而非对侧感觉区中被空间组织成离散的垂直簇，并且优先与彼此而不是附近的非输入神经元形成突触。此外，前额区远距突触微回路的组装取决于为前额区提供输入的感觉区中兴奋性神经元克隆的选择性突触通讯。这些发现表明，高度精确的长程相互微回路-微回路通讯介导了哺乳动物皮层中额-感觉区的相互作用。
