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The medial entorhinal cortex keeps Up

Nature Neuroscience volume 15, pages 1471–1472 (2012)Cite this article

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A study reveals that medial entorhinal cortex layer III spiking dynamics shape the neocortical-hippocampal dialog during Up-Down state fluctuations in slow-wave sleep that may contribute to memory consolidation.

Higher order functions rely on cooperative computations of multiple brain regions. Understanding how these spatially distributed neuronal circuits work together remains an important question. Neocortical-hippocampal interactions lay the foundation of information processing for several forms of memory1,2. During slow-wave sleep, when memory consolidation is thought to occur, neocortical networks spontaneously fluctuate at slow frequencies between persistently active Up states and quiescent Down states3. However, as the hippocampus is only weakly tied to this Up-Down state–related neocortical activity, how might activity be synchronized across circuits? A study by Hahn and colleagues4 in this issue of Nature Neuroscience provides a clue to resolving this paradox. The study identifies the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC), where layer III neurons often continue to fire during cortical Down states, as the source of neocortical-hippocampal decoupling. This neuronal response excites hippocampal circuits at times when neocortical neurons are silent, suggesting that the MEC firing described may gate the information flow needed for the consolidation of different types of memories.

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Figure 1: MEC layer III neurons exhibit persistent Up states.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology, David Dupret is at the Medical Research Council Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK,

    David Dupret

  2. Jozsef Csicsvari is at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria.,

    Jozsef Csicsvari

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  1. David Dupret
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  2. Jozsef Csicsvari
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Correspondence to David Dupret or Jozsef Csicsvari.

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Dupret, D., Csicsvari, J. The medial entorhinal cortex keeps Up. Nat Neurosci 15, 1471–1472 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3245

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