| First Author | Cornford JH | Year | 2019 |
| Journal | Elife | Volume | 8 |
| PubMed ID | 31657720 | Mgi Jnum | J:296422 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6467195 | Doi | 10.7554/eLife.49872 |
| Citation | Cornford JH, et al. (2019) Dendritic NMDA receptors in parvalbumin neurons enable strong and stable neuronal assemblies. Elife 8:e49872 |
| abstractText | Parvalbumin-expressing (PV+) GABAergic interneurons mediate feedforward and feedback inhibition and have a key role in gamma oscillations and information processing. The importance of fast synaptic recruitment and action potential initiation and repolarization, and rapid synchronous GABA release by PV+ cells, is well established. In contrast, the functional significance of PV+ cell NMDA receptors (NMDARs), which generate relatively slow postsynaptic currents, is unclear. Underlining their potential importance, several studies implicate PV+ cell NMDAR disruption in impaired network function and circuit pathologies. Here, we show that dendritic NMDARs underlie supralinear integration of feedback excitation from local pyramidal neurons onto mouse CA1 PV+ cells. Furthermore, by incorporating NMDARs at feedback connections onto PV+ cells in spiking networks, we show that these receptors enable cooperative recruitment of PV+ interneurons, strengthening and stabilising principal cell assemblies. Failure of this phenomenon provides a parsimonious explanation for cognitive and sensory gating deficits in pathologies with impaired PV+ NMDAR signalling. |
