The mammalian positioning system contains a variety of functionally specialized cells in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) and the hippocampus. In order for cells in these systems to dynamically update representations in a way that reflects ongoing movement in the environment, they must be able to read out the current speed of the animal. Speed is encoded by speed-responsive cells in both MEC ...

RNA interference is a new approach to knockdown gene expression, but effectiveness varies depending on the organism, cell type or target sequence. Studies with Caenorhabditis elegans have shown that subsets of cells including neurons are often resistant to RNA interference. We measured RNA interference using green fluorescent protein reporter strains and feeding, soaking and injection delivery ...

MicroRNAs (miRNA) are implicated in brain development and function but the underlying mechanisms have been difficult to study in part due to the cellular heterogeneity in neural circuits. To systematically analyze miRNA expression in neurons, we have established a miRNA tagging and affinity-purification (miRAP) method that is targeted to cell types through the Cre-loxP binary system in mice. Ou...

The control of targeted reaching is thought to be shaped by distinct subtypes of local GABAergic inhibitory neurons in primary forelimb motor cortex (M1). However, little is known about their action potential firing dynamics during reaching. To address this, we recorded the activity of parvalbumin-expressing (PV+) GABAergic neurons identified from a larger population of fast-spiking units and p...

Emerging evidence suggests functional roles for microglia in the healthy, mature nervous system. However, we know little of cellular density and ramified morphology sensory systems, even less their inter-relationship with inhibitory neurons. We therefore conducted fluorescent multi-channel immunohistochemistry confocal microscopy guinea pigs both sexes Iba1, GAD67, GFAP, calbindin, calretinin. ...

Within the rat paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus two types of neurons have been distinguished based on morphological appearance, i.e., parvocellular and magnocellular neurons. The parvocellular neurons play a key role in regulating the activity of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis, which is activated, e.g., after stress exposure. These neurons receive humoral negative feedback vi...

Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy display neuron loss in the hilus of the dentate gyrus. This has been proposed to be epileptogenic by a variety of different mechanisms. The present study examines the specificity and extent of neuron loss in the dentate gyrus of kainate-treated rats, a model of temporal lobe epilepsy. Kainate-treated rats lose an average of 52% of their GAD-negative hilar ne...

Aminoacylhistidine dipeptidases (PepD, EC 3.4.13.3) belong to the family of M20 metallopeptidases from the metallopeptidase H clan that catalyze a broad range of dipeptide and tripeptide substrates, including L-carnosine and L-homocarnosine. Homocarnosine has been suggested as a precursor for the neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and may mediate the antiseizure effects of GABAergic th...

26 The occupancy of coagonist binding sites of NMDA receptors (NMDARs) by glycine or D-27 serine has been thought to mediate NMDAR-dependent excitatory signaling, as simultaneous 28 binding of glutamate and a coagonist is obligatory for NMDAR activation. Amacrine cells (ACs) 29 mediating GABAergic feedback inhibition of mixed bipolar cells (Mbs) in the goldfish retina 30 have been shown to expr...

Cortistatin is a 14-residue putative neuropeptide with strong structural similarity to somatostatin and is expressed predominantly in cortical GABAergic interneurons of rats. Administration of cortistatin into the brain ventricles specifically enhances slow-wave sleep, presumably by antagonizing the effects of acetylcholine on cortical excitability. Here we report the identification of cDNAs co...