Cell Reports
Volume 28, Issue 13, 24 September 2019, Pages 3450-3461.e8
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Article
Mapping Brain-Wide Afferent Inputs of Parvalbumin-Expressing GABAergic Neurons in Barrel Cortex Reveals Local and Long-Range Circuit Motifs

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2019.08.064Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Intersectional strategy to target neurons defined by two molecular markers

  • Inputs to PV cells are mostly local and include inhibitory connections from layer I

  • PV cells receive long-range input from other sensory areas and the thalamus

  • Layer IV in visual cortex stands out as an important projection layer

Summary

Parvalbumin (PV)-expressing GABAergic neurons are the largest class of inhibitory neocortical cells. We visualize brain-wide, monosynaptic inputs to PV neurons in mouse barrel cortex. We develop intersectional rabies virus tracing to specifically target GABAergic PV cells and exclude a small fraction of excitatory PV cells from our starter population. Local inputs are mainly from layer (L) IV and excitatory cells. A small number of inhibitory inputs originate from LI neurons, which connect to LII/III PV neurons. Long-range inputs originate mainly from other sensory cortices and the thalamus. In visual cortex, most transsynaptically labeled neurons are located in LIV, which contains a molecularly mixed population of projection neurons with putative functional similarity to LIII neurons. This study expands our knowledge of the brain-wide circuits in which PV neurons are embedded and introduces intersectional rabies virus tracing as an applicable tool to dissect the circuitry of more clearly defined cell types.

Keywords

parvalbumin
GABAergic neuron
barrel cortex
rabies tracing
intersectional
Cre
Flp

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