Original Research Article
Output of neurogliaform cells to various neuron types in the human and rat cerebral cortex
Szabolcs Oláh 1, Gergely Komlósi 1, János Szabadics 1, Csaba Varga 1, Éva Tóth 1, Pál Barzó 2 and Gábor Tamás 1*
1 HAS Research Group for Cortical Microcircuits, Department of Comparative Physiology, University of Szeged, Hungary
2 Department of Neurosurgery, University of Szeged, Hungary
2 Department of Neurosurgery, University of Szeged, Hungary
Neurogliaform cells in the rat elicit combined GABAA and GABAB receptor-mediated postsynaptic responses on cortical pyramidal cells and establish electrical synapses with various interneuron types. However, the involvement of GABAB receptors in postsynaptic effects of neurogliaform cells on other GABAergic interneurons is not clear. We measured the postsynaptic effects of neurogliaform cells in vitro applying simultaneous whole-cell recordings in human and rat cortex. Single action potentials of human neurogliaform cells evoked unitary IPSPs composed of GABAA and GABAB receptor-mediated components in various types of inteneuron and in pyramidal cells. Slow IPSPs were combined with homologous and heterologous electrical coupling between neurogliaform cells and several human interneuron types. In the rat, single action potentials in neurogliaform cells elicited GABAB receptor-mediated component in responses of neurogliaform, regular spiking, and fast spiking interneurons following the GABAA receptor-mediated component in postsynaptic responses. In conclusion, human and rat neurogliaform cells elicit slow IPSPs and reach GABAA and GABAB receptors on several interneuron types with a connection-specific involvement of GABAB receptors. The electrical synapses recorded between human neurogliaform cells and various interneuron types represent the first electrical synapses recorded in the human cortex.
Keywords: neurogliaform, cortex, GABAA receptor, GABAB receptor, human
Copyright: © 2007 Oláh, Komlósi, Szabadics, Varga, Tóth, Barzó and Tamás. This is an open-access article subject to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and the Frontiers Research Foundation, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
*Correspondence: Gábor Tamás, HAS Research Group for Cortical Microcircuits, Department of Comparative Physiology, University of Szeged, Közép fasor 52., Szeged, H-6726, Hungary. e-mail: gtamas@bio.u-szeged.hu
Citation: Oláh S, Komlósi G, Szabadics J, Varga C, Tóth É, Barzó P and Tamás G (2007) Output of neurogliaform cells to various neuron types in the human and rat cerebral cortex. Front. Neural Circuits (2007) 1:4. doi:10.3389/neuro.04.004.2007
Received: 24 August 2007; paper pending published: 17 September 2007; accepted: 15 October 2007; published online: 02 November 2007.
Edited by:
Rafael Yuste, Columbia University, USA
Reviewed by:
Erin M. Schuman, Caltech/Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA
*Correspondence: Gábor Tamás, HAS Research Group for Cortical Microcircuits, Department of Comparative Physiology, University of Szeged, Közép fasor 52., Szeged, H-6726, Hungary. e-mail: gtamas@bio.u-szeged.hu


