Yoshiyuki Kubota, Satoru Kondo, Masaki Nomura, Sayuri Hatada, Noboru Yamaguchi, Alsayed A. Mohamed, Fuyuki Karube, Joachim Lübke, Yasuo Kawaguchi

 Inhibitory interneurons target precise membrane regions on pyramidal cells, but differences in their functional effects on somata, dendrites and spines remain unclear. We analyzed inhibitory synaptic events induced by cortical, fast-spiking (FS) basket cells which innervate dendritic shafts and spines as well as pyramidal cell somata. Serial electron micrographs (EMgs) reconstruction showed that somatic synapses were larger than dendritic contacts. Simulations with precise anatomical and physiological data reveal functional differences between different innervation styles. FS cell soma-targeting synapses initiate a strong, global inhibition, those on shafts inhibit more restricted dendritic zones, while synapses on spines may mediate a strictly local veto. Thus, FS cell synapses of different sizes and sites provide functionally diverse forms of pyramidal cell inhibition.

Published Paper

Yoshiyuki Kubota, Satoru Kondo, Masaki Nomura, Sayuri Hatada, Noboru Yamaguchi, Alsayed A. Mohamed, Fuyuki Karube, Joachim Lübke, Yasuo Kawaguchi
Functional effects of distinct innervation styles of pyramidal cells by fast spiking cortical interneurons
eLife (2015) eLife.07919, online publication

Schematic summary.Schematic drawing to summarize our main findings.