title: Conditional Spike Transmission Mediated by Electrical Coupling Ensures Millisecond Precision-Correlated Activity among Interneurons In Vivo.
abstract: Many GABAergic interneurons are electrically coupled and in vitro can display correlated activity with millisecond precision. However, the mechanisms underlying correlated activity between interneurons in vivo are unknown. Using dual patch-clamp recordings in vivo, we reveal that in the presence of spontaneous background synaptic activity, electrically coupled cerebellar Golgi cells exhibit robust millisecond precision-correlated activity which is enhanced by sensory stimulation. This precisely correlated activity results from the cooperative action of two mechanisms. First, electrical coupling ensures slow subthreshold membrane potential correlations by equalizing membrane potential fluctuations, such that coupled neurons tend to approach action potential threshold together. Second, fast spike-triggered spikelets transmitted through gap junctions conditionally trigger postjunctional spikes, depending on both neurons being close to threshold. Electrical coupling therefore controls the temporal precision and degree of both spontaneous and sensory-evoked correlated activity between interneurons, by the cooperative effects of shared synaptic depolarization and spikelet transmission.
authors.affiliation: Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research and Department of Neuroscience, Physiology, and Pharmacology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: Ingrid
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: van Welie
authors.affiliation: Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research and Department of Neuroscience, Physiology, and Pharmacology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: Arnd
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roth
authors.affiliation: Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research and Department of Neuroscience, Physiology, and Pharmacology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors.forename: Sara S N
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.affiliation: Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5 Takayama, Ikoma, Nara 630-0192, Japan.
authors.forename: Shoji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Komai
authors.affiliation: Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research and Department of Neuroscience, Physiology, and Pharmacology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK. Electronic address: m.hausser@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Häusser
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D017629:Gap Junctions / Q000502:physiology; D007395:Interneurons / Q000502:physiology*; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques / Q000379:methods; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*