In layer 6 (L6), a principal output layer of the mammalian cerebral cortex, a population of excitatory neurons defined by the NTSR1-Cre mouse line inhibit cortical responses to visual stimuli. Here we show that of the two major types of excitatory neurons existing in L6, the NTSR1-Cre line selectively targets those whose axons innervate both cortex and thalamus and not those whose axons remain ...

In the neurological mutant mouse reeler, the histological organization of the neocortex develops abnormally and essentially results in an inversion of the relative positions of the cortical layers. The reeler mutation, therefore, provides an insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying the formation of the cortical layers. We have generated a monoclonal antibody (CR-50) that probes a distin...

The ventral and medial divisions of the medial geniculate body (MGBv and MGBm) respectively are the lemniscal and nonlemniscal thalamic auditory nuclei. Lemniscal neurons are narrowly frequency tuned and provide highly specific frequency information to the primary auditory cortex (AI), whereas nonlemniscal neurons are broadly frequency tuned and project widely to auditory cortical areas includi...

BACKGROUND Cortical neurons implement a high frequency-specific modulation of subcortical nuclei that includes the cochlear nucleus. Anatomical studies show that corticofugal fibers terminating in the auditory thalamus and midbrain are mostly ipsilateral. Differently, corticofugal fibers terminating in the cochlear nucleus are bilateral, which fits to the needs of binaural hearing that improves...

Understanding the connectivity observed in brain and how it emerges from local plasticity rules is a grand challenge modern neuroscience. In primary visual cortex (V1) of mice, synapses between excitatory pyramidal neurons inhibitory parvalbumin-expressing (PV) interneurons tend to be stronger for that respond similar stimulus features, although these are not topographically arranged according ...

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive technique that uses fields to stimulate neurons in the cerebral cortex.While electricity has previously been intended be used medical field, history of TMS dates back discovery electromagnetic induction by Faraday 19th century. However, it was not until 1980s when Anthony Barker developed first device at University Sheffield.TMS works mea...

In the mouse, each class of olfactory sensory neurons expressing a given odorant receptor converges their axons onto two specific glomeruli in the olfactory bulb (OB), thereby creating an odor map. An important unresolved question is how the spatial odor map in the olfactory bulb is represented in the olfactory cortex. Here we combine rabies virus-dependent retrograde mono-transsynaptic labelin...

Glial cells form a network in the central nervous system to support neurons and interact with them. The glia consist essentially of astrocytes that help with the nutrition of neurons and react in some cases of injury, oligodendrocytes that produce myelin, and microglia that are derived from the haemopoietic system and are concerned with the immunological defense of the nervous system. Experimen...