Activity-dependent tuning of intrinsic excitability in mouse and human neurogliaform cells
Abstract
The ability to modulate the efficacy of synaptic communication between neurons constitutes an essential property critical for normal brain function. Animal models have proved invaluable in revealing a wealth of diverse cellular mechanisms underlying varied plasticity modes. However, to what extent these processes are mirrored in humans is largely uncharted thus questioning their relevance in human circuit function. In this study, we focus on neurogliaform cells, that possess specialized physiological features enabling them to impart a widespread inhibitory influence on neural activity. We demonstrate that this prominent neuronal subtype, embedded in both mouse and human neural circuits, undergo remarkably similar activity-dependent modulation manifesting as epochs of enhanced intrinsic excitability. In principle, these evolutionary conserved plasticity routes likely tune the extent of neurogliaform cell mediated inhibition thus constituting canonical circuit mechanisms underlying human cognitive processing and behavior.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting source data files.
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Cell Diversity in the Mouse Cortex and Hippocampus & Cell Diversity in the Human cortexhttps://transcriptomic-viewer-downloads.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/mouse/transcriptome.zip; https://transcriptomic-viewer-downloads.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/human/transcriptome.zip.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
NINDS Intramural Research Program (Z01NS003144)
- Kareem A Zaghloul
NICHD Intramural Research Program (ZIAHD001205)
- Chris J McBain
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Linda Overstreet-Wadiche, University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All mice were handled in accordance with animal protocols approved by the National Institutes of Health (ASP# 17-045).
Human subjects: The NINDS Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved the research protocol (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01273129), and informed consent for the experimental use of resected tissue was obtained from each participant and their guardians.
Version history
- Received: April 4, 2020
- Accepted: June 2, 2020
- Accepted Manuscript published: June 4, 2020 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: June 17, 2020 (version 2)
Copyright
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
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