title: Optogenetic dissection of entorhinal-hippocampal functional connectivity.
abstract: We used a combined optogenetic-electrophysiological strategy to determine the functional identity of entorhinal cells with output to the place-cell population in the hippocampus. Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) was expressed selectively in the hippocampus-targeting subset of entorhinal projection neurons by infusing retrogradely transportable ChR2-coding recombinant adeno-associated virus in the hippocampus. Virally transduced ChR2-expressing cells were identified in medial entorhinal cortex as cells that fired at fixed minimal latencies in response to local flashes of light. A large number of responsive cells were grid cells, but short-latency firing was also induced in border cells and head-direction cells, as well as cells with irregular or nonspatial firing correlates, which suggests that place fields may be generated by convergence of signals from a broad spectrum of entorhinal functional cell types.
authors.affiliation: Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrres gate 9, Norwegian Brain Centre, 7491 Trondheim, Norway. sheng-jia.zhang@ntnu.no
authors.forename: Sheng-Jia
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Chenglin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tsao
authors.forename: Ignas
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cerniauskas
authors.forename: Debora
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ledergerber
authors.forename: May-Britt
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Moser
authors.forename: Edvard I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Moser
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons / Q000502:physiology; D056547:CA1 Region, Hippocampal / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D002450:Cell Communication; D000075402:Channelrhodopsins; D000229:Dependovirus; D018728:Entorhinal Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D018390:Gene Targeting; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D051381:Rats; D014161:Transduction, Genetic
chemical_list: D000075402:Channelrhodopsins