Disrupted-in-schizophrenia-1 is required for normal pyramidal cell-interneuron communication and assembly dynamics in the prefrontal cortex.
Sauer JF, Bartos M (2022) eLife
Dec 30, 2020
Abstract
We interrogated prefrontal circuit function in mice lacking Disrupted-in-schizophrenia-1 (Disc1-mutant mice), a risk factor for psychiatric disorders. Single-unit recordings in awake mice revealed reduced average firing rates of fast-spiking interneurons (INTs), including optogenetically identified parvalbumin-positive cells, and a lower proportion of INTs phase-coupled to ongoing gamma oscillations. Moreover, we observed decreased spike transmission efficacy at local pyramidal cell (PYR)-INT connections in vivo, suggesting a reduced excitatory effect of local glutamatergic inputs as a potential mechanism of lower INT rates. On the network level, impaired INT function resulted in altered activation of PYR assemblies: While assembly activations defined as coactivations within 25 ms were observed equally often, the expression strength of individual assembly patterns was significantly higher in Disc1-mutant mice. Our data, thus, reveal a role of Disc1 in shaping the properties of prefrontal assembly patterns by setting INT responsiveness to glutamatergic drive.
Keywords: DISC1; interneuron; mouse; neuronal assembly; neuroscience; prefrontal cortex; schizophrenia; synaptic transmission.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36239988/