A Characterization of the Electrophysiological and Morphological Properties of Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide (VIP) Interneurons in the Medial Entorhinal Cortex (MEC).

Circuit interactions within the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) translate movement into a coherent code for spatial location. Entorhinal principal cells are subject to strong lateral inhibition, suggesting that a disinhibitory mechanism may drive their activation. Cortical Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide (VIP) expressing inhibitory neurons are known to contact other interneurons and excitatory cells and are thus capable of providing a local disinhibitory mechanism, yet little is known about this cell type in the MEC.

Electrophysiological and Morphological Characterization of Chrna2 Cells in the Subiculum and CA1 of the Hippocampus: An Optogenetic Investigation.

The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha2 subunit (Chrna2) is a specific marker for oriens lacunosum-moleculare (OLM) interneurons in the dorsal CA1 region of the hippocampus. It was recently shown using a Chrna2-cre mice line that OLM interneurons can modulate entorhinal cortex and CA3 inputs and may therefore have an important role in gating, encoding, and recall of memory. In this study, we have used a combination of electrophysiology and optogenetics using Chrna2-cre mice to determine the role of Chrna2 interneurons in the subiculum area, the main output region of the hippocampus.