title: Microcircuits of functionally identified neurons in the rat medial entorhinal cortex.
abstract: Extracellular recordings have elucidated spatial neural representations without identifying underlying microcircuits. We labeled neurons juxtacellularly in medial entorhinal cortex of freely moving rats with a friction-based, pipette-stabilization system. In a linear maze novel to the animals, spatial firing of superficial layer neurons was reminiscent of grid cell activity. Layer 2 stellate cells showed stronger theta modulation than layer 3 neurons, and both fired during the ascending phase of field potential theta. Deep-layer neurons showed little or no activity. Layer 2 stellate cells resided in hundreds of small patches. At the dorsomedial entorhinal border, we identified larger (putative parasubicular) patches, which contained polarized head-direction selective neurons firing during the descending theta phase. Three axon systems interconnected patches: centrifugal axons from superficial cells to single large patches, centripetal axons from large-patch cells to single small patches, and circumcurrent axons interconnecting large patches. Our microcircuit analysis during behavior reveals modularity of entorhinal processing.
authors: Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. andrea.burgalossi@bccn-berlin.de
authors: Andrea
authors: A
authors: Burgalossi
authors: Lucas
authors: L
authors: Herfst
authors: Moritz
authors: M
authors: von Heimendahl
authors: Henning
authors: H
authors: Förste
authors: Kurt
authors: K
authors: Haskic
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: Schmidt
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Brecht