Researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle studied selective heterozygous and homozygous deletions of the voltage gated sodium channel (Nav1.1) in parvalbumin (PV) or somato-statin (SST) expressing interneurons.

Cognitive deficits are a core clinical feature of schizophrenia but respond poorly to available medications. Thus, understanding the neural basis of these deficits is crucial for the development of new therapeutic interventions. The types of cognitive processes affected in schizophrenia are thought to depend on the precisely timed transmission of information in cortical regions via synchronous ...

Using mice that express enhance green fluorescent protein (EGFP) under the control of the parvalbumin promoter, we made paired recordings from interneurons and principal neurons in the basal amygdala. In synaptically connected pairs, we show that single action potentials in a parvalbumin expressing interneuron can inhibit spiking in the synaptically connected principal neuron. When principal ne...

Excitation-inhibition balance is critical for optimal brain function, yet the mechanisms underlying the tuning of inhibition from different populations of inhibitory neurons are unclear. Here, we found evidence for two distinct pathways through which excitatory neurons cell-autonomously modulate inhibitory synapses. Synapses from parvalbumin-expressing interneurons onto hippocampal pyramidal ne...

The aim of this study was to track the immunoreactivity of parvalbumin and calbindin D28k buffering proteins in neurons of the dorsal raphe nucleus DRN of the adult male chinchilla. The reaction of peroxidase-antiperoxidase (PAP) using specific antibodies against these proteins was performed. In most neurons, with the exception of small oval and medium-sized, stellate neurons, weak immunostaini...

Hippocampal pyramidal cells (PCs) express many GABAAR subunit types and receive GABAergic inputs from distinct interneurons. Previous experiments revealed input-specific differences in α1 and α2 subunit densities in perisomatic synapses, suggesting distinct IPSC decay kinetics. However, IPSC decays evoked by axo-axonic, parvalbumin- or cholecystokinin-expressing basket cells were found to be si...

By means of anterograde tracing of Phaseolus vulgaris-leucoagglutinin (PHA-L) it was determined if parvalbumin-immunoreactive neurons in the basal forebrain receive a direct synaptic input from the A9-A10 dopaminergic nuclei of the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area. Forebrain sections were processed for immunocytochemical detection of PHA-L and parvalbumin (PV) at light and electron m...

The basal ganglia (BG) integrate inputs from diverse sensorimotor, limbic, and associative regions to guide action-selection and goal-directed behaviors. The entopeduncular nucleus (EP) is a major BG output nucleus and has been suggested to channel signals from distinct BG nuclei to target regions involved in diverse functions. Here we use single-cell transcriptional and molecular analyses to d...

Inhibitory synapses comprise only ∼20% of the total synapses in the mammalian brain but play essential roles in controlling neuronal activity. In fact, perturbing inhibitory synapses is associated with complex brain disorders, such as schizophrenia and epilepsy. Although many types of inhibitory synapses exist, these disorders have been strongly linked to defects in inhibitory synapses formed b...

Amyloids are polymeric structural states formed from locally or totally unfolded protein chains that permit surface reorganizations, stability enhancements and interaction properties that are absent in the precursor monomers. β-Parvalbumin, the major allergen in fish allergy, forms amyloids that are recognized by IgE in the patient sera, suggesting a yet unknown pathological role for these asse...