Neuron
Volume 75, Issue 2, 26 July 2012, Pages 330-341
Journal home page for Neuron

Article
Principles Governing the Operation of Synaptic Inhibition in Dendrites

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2012.05.015Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Summary

Synaptic inhibition plays a key role in shaping the dynamics of neuronal networks and selecting cell assemblies. Typically, an inhibitory axon contacts a particular dendritic subdomain of its target neuron, where it often makes 10–20 synapses, sometimes on very distal branches. The functional implications of such a connectivity pattern are not well understood. Our experimentally based theoretical study highlights several new and counterintuitive principles for dendritic inhibition. We show that distal “off-path” rather than proximal “on-path” inhibition effectively dampens proximal excitable dendritic “hotspots,” thus powerfully controlling the neuron's output. Additionally, with multiple synaptic contacts, inhibition operates globally, spreading centripetally hundreds of micrometers from the inhibitory synapses. Consequently, inhibition in regions lacking inhibitory synapses may exceed that at the synaptic sites themselves. These results offer new insights into the synergetic effect of dendritic inhibition in controlling dendritic excitability and plasticity and in dynamically molding functional dendritic subdomains and their output.

Highlights

► Distal dendritic inhibition effectively controls excitability at proximal regions ► Inhibitory shunt spreads centripetally in dendrites encircled by multiple I-synapses ► Maximal inhibition may occur in dendritic domains lacking I-synapses ► A small number of I-synapses can effectively inhibit the entire dendritic tree

Cited by (0)