| First Author | McFarlan AR | Year | 2024 |
| Journal | Front Synaptic Neurosci | Volume | 16 |
| Pages | 1433977 | PubMed ID | 39267890 |
| Mgi Jnum | J:371204 | Mgi Id | MGI:8238712 |
| Doi | 10.3389/fnsyn.2024.1433977 | Citation | McFarlan AR, et al. (2024) The short-term plasticity of VIP interneurons in motor cortex. Front Synaptic Neurosci 16:1433977 |
| abstractText | Short-term plasticity is an important feature in the brain for shaping neural dynamics and for information processing. Short-term plasticity is known to depend on many factors including brain region, cortical layer, and cell type. Here we focus on vasoactive-intestinal peptide (VIP) interneurons (INs). VIP INs play a key disinhibitory role in cortical circuits by inhibiting other IN types, including Martinotti cells (MCs) and basket cells (BCs). Despite this prominent role, short-term plasticity at synapses to and from VIP INs is not well described. In this study, we therefore characterized the short-term plasticity at inputs and outputs of genetically targeted VIP INs in mouse motor cortex. To explore inhibitory to inhibitory (I --> I) short-term plasticity at layer 2/3 (L2/3) VIP IN outputs onto L5 MCs and BCs, we relied on a combination of whole-cell recording, 2-photon microscopy, and optogenetics, which revealed that VIP IN-->MC/BC synapses were consistently short-term depressing. To explore excitatory (E) --> I short-term plasticity at inputs to VIP INs, we used extracellular stimulation. Surprisingly, unlike VIP IN outputs, E --> VIP IN synapses exhibited heterogeneous short-term dynamics, which we attributed to the target VIP IN cell rather than the input. Computational modeling furthermore linked the diversity in short-term dynamics at VIP IN inputs to a wide variability in probability of release. Taken together, our findings highlight how short-term plasticity at VIP IN inputs and outputs is specific to synapse type. We propose that the broad diversity in short-term plasticity of VIP IN inputs forms a basis to code for a broad range of contrasting signal dynamics. |
