RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A Dendritic Disinhibitory Circuit Mechanism for Pathway-Specific Gating
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 041673
DO 10.1101/041673
A1 Guangyu Robert Yang
A1 John D. Murray
A1 Xiao-Jing Wang
YR 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/02/28/041673.abstract
AB In this work we propose that a disinhibitory circuit motif, which recently gained experimental support, can instantiate flexible routing of information flow along selective pathways in a complex system of cortical areas according to behavioral demands (pathway-specific gating). We developed a network model of pyramidal neurons and three classes of interneurons, with connection probabilities constrained by data. If distinct input pathways cluster on separate dendritic branches of pyramidal neurons, then a pathway can be gated-on by disinhibiting targeted dendrites. We show that this branch-specific disinhibition can be achieved despite dense in-terneuronal connectivity, even under the assumption of random connections. We found clustering of input pathways on dendrites can emerge through synaptic plasticity regulated by disinhibition. This gating mechanism in a neural circuit is further demonstrated by performing a context-dependent decision-making task. Our findings suggest a microcircuit architecture that harnesses dendritic computation and diverse inhibitory neuron types to subserve cognitive flexibility.