Event Details:
Functional flexibility: Circuit mechanisms of state-dependent regulation in the cortex
Jess Cardin, PhD
Associate Professor,
Yale School of Medicine
Host: Jun Ding
Abstract
The physical components of cortical circuits, cells and synapses, are relatively stable. However, the operation of those circuits varies on a millisecond timescale with changes in behavioral state and cognition. Recent work has suggested that this extensive adaptation to changes in context and demand is supported by rapid flexibility in the ‘functional’ circuit, the cells which are participating in circuit operations at any given moment. One potential mechanism that could promote the functional flexibility of cortical circuits is the diversity of GABAergic interneurons. Distinct populations of inhibitory interneuron have different intrinsic properties, activity profiles, and synaptic targeting, and are recruited into ongoing network activity under different conditions. To examine how different populations regulate the evolving pattern of cortical circuit activity, we have explored the developmental and mature roles of interneurons, whose activity is tightly correlated with behavioral state. We have further examined how interactions among different interneuron populations affect the influence of soma- vs dendrite-targeting inhibition under different behavioral conditions.
Related papers
[1] Vinck, M., Batista-Brito, R., Knoblich, U., Cardin, J.A. Arousal and locomotion make distinct contributions to cortical activity patterns and visual encoding. Neuron 2015, 86,740-5. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2015.03.028
[2] Batista-Brito, R., Vinck, M., Ferguson, K.A., Chang, J., Laubender D., Lur, G., Ramakrishnan, C., Deisseroth K., Higley, M.J., and Cardin, J.A. Developmental Dysfunction of VIP Interneurons Impairs Cortical Circuits. Neuron, 2017, 95:884-95. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2017.07.034