Does inhibition balance excitation in neocortex?

The distribution of inhibitory and excitatory synapses on neocortical neurons is at odds with a simple view that cortical functioning can persist by maintaining a balance between inhibitory and excitatory drives. Pyramidal cells can potentially be shut down by very powerful proximal inhibitory synap...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Progress in biophysics and molecular biology 2005-01, Vol.87 (1), p.109-143
Main Authors: Trevelyan, Andrew J., Watkinson, Oliver
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Computer Simulation
Electrophysiology
Humans
Interneurons - physiology
Models, Neurological
Neocortex - physiology
Neurons - classification
Neurons - physiology
Pyramidal Cells - physiology
Software
Synapses - physiology
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Summary:The distribution of inhibitory and excitatory synapses on neocortical neurons is at odds with a simple view that cortical functioning can persist by maintaining a balance between inhibitory and excitatory drives. Pyramidal cells can potentially be shut down by very powerful proximal inhibitory synapses, despite these accounting for perhaps less than 1% of their total number of synaptic inputs. Interneurons in contrast are dominated by excitatory inputs. These may be powerful enough to effect an apparent depolarizing block at the soma. In this extreme case though, models suggest that action potentials are generated down the axon, and the cells behave like integrate-and-fire neurons. We discuss possible network implications of these modelling studies.
ISSN:0079-6107
1873-1732
DOI:10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2004.06.008