Event Abstract

Back to Event

Interneuron cell types differentially modulate gain in a multi-compartmental pyramidal cell model

Felicja Binicewicz1, Marije Ter Wal1* and Paul H. Tiesinga1
  • 1 Radboud University, Netherlands

Recent experimental work has shown a differential effect of activation of different types of interneurons on input/output the gain of relationship of pyramidal cells, when tested either using current injection or using the presentation of sensory stimuli. These experiments support the hypothesis that interneuron activity plays a key role in the dynamic transmission of signals. On the local circuit level, interneuron activity could affect the input-output relation of local pyramidal cells in a subtractive or divisive way, or shift the dynamic range of the cell (Silver, 2010; Tiesinga et al., 2008).
In recent studies, contradictory results have been found concerning the effect on the gain of orientation-tuned pyramidal cells by two separate populations of interneurons, the somatostatin positive (SOM+) and parvalbumin positive (PV+) interneurons (Lee et al., 2012; Wilson et al., 2012). In Lee et al report results suggesting a divisive effect for SOM+ and a subtractive effect for PV+, whereas Wilson et al report results indicating the contrary. The reason these differences remain unclear. An explanation potentially involves differences in experimental protocols, resulting in differences in network state and pattern of synaptic background activation due to anesthesia and strength of optogenetic activation. The effects these differences have on the measured gain depends on the differences in morphology, axonal targets and intrinsic electrophysiological properties between the SOM+ and PV+ interneuron types.
Using a modelling approach, we examined the effects of interneuron activity on the gain of a layer 5 pyramidal cell. To this end, we adapted a multi-compartmental model of a layer 5 pyramidal neuron (Li et al., 2013) and assessed the significance of spatially and temporally patterned inputs for gain modulation. The model pyramidal cell received inhibitory inputs from SOM+ interneurons on the distal dendrite and/or inhibitory inputs from PV+ cells on the proximal dendrites and the soma, as well as excitatory synaptic inputs. Inputs were either timed randomly or locked to an oscillatory rhythm, since PV+ interneurons are known to play a key role in gamma rhythm generation, while SOM+ cells were considered to be locked to a slower rhythm.
We found that the effect of SOM mediated dendritic inhibition was different depending on whether the excitatory inputs arrived at the same location on the dendrite or at the soma and a different part of the dendritic tree. Taken together, these results show that testing gain changes via current injection at the soma might give potentially misleading results for the differential effects on gain of interneurons targeting different parts of a neuron’s morphology.

References

Lee, S.-H., Kwan, A. C., Zhang, S., Phoumthipphavong, V., Flannery, J. G., Masmanidis, S. C., Taniguchi, H., Huang, Z. J., Zhang, F., Boyden, E. S., Deisseroth, K. & Dan, Y. (2012). Activation of specific interneurons improves V1 feature selectivity and visual perception. Nature, 488(7411), 379–83. doi:10.1038/nature11312

Li, X., Morita, K., Robinson, H. P. C., & Small, M. (2013). Control of layer 5 pyramidal cell spiking by oscillatory inhibition in the distal apical dendrites: a computational modeling study. Journal of Neurophysiology, 109(11), 2739–56. doi:10.1152/jn.00397.2012

Silver, R. A. (2010). Neuronal arithmetic. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 11(7), 474–89. doi:10.1038/nrn2864
Tiesinga, P., Fellous, J.-M., & Sejnowski, T. J. (2008). Regulation of spike timing in visual cortical circuits. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 9(2), 97–107. doi:10.1038/nrn2315

Wilson, N. R., Runyan, C. a, Wang, F. L., & Sur, M. (2012). Division and subtraction by distinct cortical inhibitory networks in vivo. Nature, 488(7411), 343–8. doi:10.1038/nature11347

Keywords: gain modulation, Somatostatin, Parvalbumins, multi-compartment model, layer 5 pyramidal cell

Conference: Neuroinformatics 2014, Leiden, Netherlands, 25 Aug - 27 Aug, 2014.

Presentation Type: Poster, not to be considered for oral presentation

Topic: Computational neuroscience

Citation: Binicewicz F, Ter Wal M and Tiesinga PH (2014). Interneuron cell types differentially modulate gain in a multi-compartmental pyramidal cell model. Front. Neuroinform. Conference Abstract: Neuroinformatics 2014. doi: 10.3389/conf.fninf.2014.18.00011

Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.

The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.

Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.

For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.

Received: 03 Apr 2014; Published Online: 04 Jun 2014.

* Correspondence: Ms. Marije Ter Wal, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands, m.terwal@donders.ru.nl