TY - JOUR TI - Dendritic NMDA receptors in parvalbumin neurons enable strong and stable neuronal assemblies AU - Cornford, Jonathan H AU - Mercier, Marion S AU - Leite, Marco AU - Magloire, Vincent AU - Häusser, Michael AU - Kullmann, Dimitri M A2 - Bartos, Marlene A2 - Westbrook, Gary L A2 - Lien, Cheng-Chang A2 - Poncer, Jean Christophe VL - 8 PY - 2019 DA - 2019/10/28 SP - e49872 C1 - eLife 2019;8:e49872 DO - 10.7554/eLife.49872 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.49872 AB - Parvalbumin-expressing (PV+) GABAergic interneurons mediate feedforward and feedback inhibition and have a key role in gamma oscillations and information processing. The importance of fast synaptic recruitment and action potential initiation and repolarization, and rapid synchronous GABA release by PV+ cells, is well established. In contrast, the functional significance of PV+ cell NMDA receptors (NMDARs), which generate relatively slow postsynaptic currents, is unclear. Underlining their potential importance, several studies implicate PV+ cell NMDAR disruption in impaired network function and circuit pathologies. Here, we show that dendritic NMDARs underlie supralinear integration of feedback excitation from local pyramidal neurons onto mouse CA1 PV+ cells. Furthermore, by incorporating NMDARs at feedback connections onto PV+ cells in spiking networks, we show that these receptors enable cooperative recruitment of PV+ interneurons, strengthening and stabilising principal cell assemblies. Failure of this phenomenon provides a parsimonious explanation for cognitive and sensory gating deficits in pathologies with impaired PV+ NMDAR signalling. KW - interneurons KW - dendrites KW - computation KW - oscillations KW - hippocampus JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -