Neocortical long-range inhibition promotes cortical synchrony and sleep.

Behavioral states such as sleep and wake are highly correlated with specific patterns of rhythmic activity in the cortex. During low arousal states such as slow wave sleep, the cortex is synchronized and dominated by low frequency rhythms coordinated across multiple regions. Although recent evidence suggests that GABAergic inhibitory neurons are key players in cortical state modulation, the circuit mechanisms coordinating synchronized activity among local and distant neocortical networks are not well understood.

Disruption of Cholinergic Retinal Waves Alters Visual Cortex Development and Function.

Retinal waves represent an early form of patterned spontaneous neural activity in the visual system. These waves originate in the retina before eye-opening and propagate throughout the visual system, influencing the assembly and maturation of subcortical visual brain regions. However, because it is technically challenging to ablate retina-derived cortical waves without inducing compensatory activity, the role these waves play in the development of the visual cortex remains unclear.

Neuronal oscillator robustness to multiple global perturbations.

Neuronal activity depends on ion channels and biophysical processes that are strongly and differentially sensitive to physical variables such as temperature and pH. Nonetheless, neuronal oscillators can be surprisingly resilient to perturbations in these variables. We study a three-neuron pacemaker ensemble that drives the pyloric rhythm of the crab, Cancer borealis.

The Interneuron Class Struggle.

In this issue of Cell, Gouwens et al. establish the state of the art for defining inhibitory cell types in the mouse neocortex. By combining morphological, electrophysiological, and transcriptomic features to classify interneurons in the mouse visual cortex, this work provides a roadmap for understanding the diversity of cell types and their functional role in cortical computations.

Modulation of cortical circuits by top-down processing and arousal state in health and disease.

In this review, we explore how contextual modulations of sensory processing are implemented within the local cortical circuit. We focus on contextual influences of global arousal state (e.g.