Alison L. Barth (Department of Biological Sciences and, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA)

The Bernstein Center Freiburg

Bernstein Seminar

Alison L. Barth

Department of Biological Sciences and
Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA

 

Elevated activity in an embedded
subnetwork of neocortical neurons
causes and consequences

Abstract:
Sensory information is transmitted with high fidelity across multiple synapses until it reaches the neocortex. There, individual neurons exhibit enormous variability in responses, with some neurons firing at significantly higher rates. The source of this diversity in output has been debated. Using transgenic mice expressing GFP coupled to the activity-dependent gene c-fos, we identified neurons with a history of elevated activity. Paired recordings show layer 2/3 fosGFP+ neurons receive two-fold greater excitatory drive from layer 4, the input layer of the cortex, versus neighboring unlabeled cells. This increased drive required sensory input to be established but not to be maintained, was not associated with evidence for recent plasticity, and led to higher stimulus-evoked firing. Thus, differences in circuit construction can lead to response heterogeneity amongst neocortical neurons.

Host: Arvind Kumar