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| Open AccessGABAergic neurons in the rostromedial tegmental nucleus are essential for rapid eye movement sleep suppression
The neural circuits regulating REM sleep are poorly understood. The authors reveal that GABAergic neurons in the rostromedial tegmental nucleus suppress the onset and maintenance of REM sleep, and that projections of these neurons to the LDT and LH mediate distinct REM sleep transitions.
- Ya-Nan Zhao
- , Jian-Bo Jiang
- & Su-Rong Yang
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Article
| Open AccessA circuit from the ventral subiculum to anterior hypothalamic nucleus GABAergic neurons essential for anxiety-like behavioral avoidance
Anxiety is thought to be evolutionarily rooted in predator defense. Yan et al. show that GABAergic neurons in the anterior hypothalamic nucleus (AHN), a node in the predator defense network, play an essential role in anxiety-like behaviors.
- Jing-Jing Yan
- , Xiao-Jing Ding
- & Xiao-Hong Xu
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| Open AccessHost interneurons mediate plasticity reactivated by embryonic inhibitory cell transplantation in mouse visual cortex
Transplantation of embryonic interneurons can restore juvenile plasticity to the adult host visual cortex. Here, the authors show that transplanted embryonic interneurons reactivate cortical plasticity via Neuregulin/ErbB4 signaling in host parvalbumin interneurons.
- XiaoTing Zheng
- , Kirstie J. Salinas
- & Sunil P. Gandhi
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| Open AccessDifferential chloride homeostasis in the spinal dorsal horn locally shapes synaptic metaplasticity and modality-specific sensitization
Inhibition in spinal nociceptive pathways is weaker and more labile in lamina I —where thermal input is primarily processed— than in lamina II that encodes predominantly high threshold mechanical input. This explains why noxious thermal input makes spinal circuits prone to catastrophic sensitization.
- Francesco Ferrini
- , Jimena Perez-Sanchez
- & Yves De Koninck
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| Open AccessEnhancing neuronal chloride extrusion rescues α2/α3 GABAA-mediated analgesia in neuropathic pain
Disinhibition in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord may contribute to chronic pain. Here the authors show that, despite a paradoxical increase in α2/α3 subunits of the GABAA receptor in a neuropathic pain model, inhibition eventually fails due to KCC2 hypofunction.
- Louis-Etienne Lorenzo
- , Antoine G. Godin
- & Yves De Koninck
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Article
| Open AccessKetamine disinhibits dendrites and enhances calcium signals in prefrontal dendritic spines
The authors show that a subanesthetic dose of ketamine markedly elevate calcium signals in apical dendritic spines in the mouse prefrontal cortex. This effect is driven by a local-circuit mechanism that involves the suppression of somatostatin interneurons leading to dendritic disinhibition.
- Farhan Ali
- , Danielle M. Gerhard
- & Alex C. Kwan
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Article
| Open AccessMuscarinic acetylcholine receptor signaling generates OFF selectivity in a simple visual circuit
Drosophila larvae are able to perform visually-guided behaviours yet the molecular and circuit mechanisms for discriminating changes in light intensity are not known. Here, the authors report that ON versus OFF discrimination results from opposing cholinergic and glutamatergic mechanisms.
- Bo Qin
- , Tim-Henning Humberg
- & Quan Yuan
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| Open AccessSpatial suppression promotes rapid figure-ground segmentation of moving objects
The visual system excels at segregating moving objects from their backgrounds, a key visual function hypothesized to be driven by suppressive centre-surround mechanisms. Here, the authors show that spatial suppression of background motion signals is critical for rapid segmentation of moving objects.
- Duje Tadin
- , Woon Ju Park
- & Randolph Blake
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Article
| Open AccessAsymmetric ephaptic inhibition between compartmentalized olfactory receptor neurons
In Drosophila antenna, an unusual non-synaptic form of lateral inhibition occurs between subtypes of compartmentalized olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs). Here, authors show that direct electrical (ephaptic) interactions mediate lateral inhibition between ORNs, with physically larger ORNs dominating ephaptic interactions.
- Ye Zhang
- , Tin Ki Tsang
- & Chih-Ying Su
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Article
| Open AccessIgSF9b regulates anxiety behaviors through effects on centromedial amygdala inhibitory synapses
IgSF9b is a synaptic adhesion protein that has been linked to psychiatric disorders. Here the authors show that deletion of IgSF9b regulates anxiety-like behaviour in mice by increasing inhibitory synaptic transmission in the centromedial amygdala.
- Olga Babaev
- , Hugo Cruces-Solis
- & Dilja Krueger-Burg
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Article
| Open AccessRegion-specific and state-dependent action of striatal GABAergic interneurons
Striatal GABAergic interneurons regulate the influence of cortical inputs on striatal projection neurons through feedforward inhibition. Here, the authors report that this inhibition is mediated mainly by PV interneurons in the dorsolateral striatum and SOM interneurons in the dorsomedial striatum.
- Elodie Fino
- , Marie Vandecasteele
- & Laurent Venance
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Article
| Open AccessInterneuron-specific signaling evokes distinctive somatostatin-mediated responses in adult cortical astrocytes
Interneurons in the neocortex have functional and morphological subtypes. Here, Mariotti and colleagues show that activation of parvalbumin-expressing interneurons evokes depressing calcium responses in astrocytes while somatostatin-expressing interneurons evoke potentiating astrocytic responses.
- Letizia Mariotti
- , Gabriele Losi
- & Giorgio Carmignoto
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| Open AccessTectal-derived interneurons contribute to phasic and tonic inhibition in the visual thalamus
The development and function of thalamic interneurons is only partially understood. Here the authors describe the unexpected mesencephalic origin of the GABAergic interneurons of the visual thalamus that provide both phasic and tonic modulation of thalamic relay neuron excitability.
- Polona Jager
- , Zhiwen Ye
- & Alessio Delogu
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Synthetic lateral inhibition governs cell-type bifurcation with robust ratios
Cell-type diversity results from a series of binary cell fate decisions. Here, Matsuda et al.find that cells engineered with a Notch/Delta lateral inhibition circuit spontaneously bifurcate into Notch-active and Delta-positive subpopulations that are robust at the individual and population levels.
- Mitsuhiro Matsuda
- , Makito Koga
- & Miki Ebisuya
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KCNQ5 K+ channels control hippocampal synaptic inhibition and fast network oscillations
Several K+ channels control neuronal excitability, but the function of KCNQ5 (Kv7.5), which displays wide expression in the brain, is not known. Here the authors show that KCNQ5 controls excitability and function of hippocampal networks through modulation of synaptic inhibition.
- Pawel Fidzinski
- , Tatiana Korotkova
- & Thomas J. Jentsch
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| Open AccessSynaptic recruitment of gephyrin regulates surface GABAA receptor dynamics for the expression of inhibitory LTP
GABA receptors are implicated in neuronal postsynaptic long-term potentiation of inhibition (iLTP). Here, Petrini et al. show that iLTP depends on recruitment of the scaffold protein gephyrin at synapses, which is enhanced by CaMKII-dependent phosphorylation of a specific residue on GABAAreceptors.
- Enrica Maria Petrini
- , Tiziana Ravasenga
- & Andrea Barberis
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Synapsin II desynchronizes neurotransmitter release at inhibitory synapses by interacting with presynaptic calcium channels
The arrival of action potentials at nerve terminals often leads to synchronous neurotransmitter release. Medrihan and colleagues use electrophysiology on mouse hippocampal neurons to show that the vesicle protein Synapsin II promotes GABAergic asynchronous release by interacting with calcium channels.
- Lucian Medrihan
- , Fabrizia Cesca
- & Fabio Benfenati
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| Open AccessEvidence of an inhibitory restraint of seizure activity in humans
Seizure activity in the brain is characterized by the recruitment of cortical neuronal activity. Schevon and colleagues study seizure activity in human subjects and find that the recruitment of neurons is hypersynchronous and that there is an intrinsic restraint on the propagation of this activity.
- Catherine A. Schevon
- , Shennan A. Weiss
- & Andrew J. Trevelyan