Long-range GABAergic cells

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GABAergic interneurones can effectively synchronize the activity of their target principal cells, giving rise to oscillatory patterns in defined frequency ranges. Recent evidence from our lab indicates that recruitment of GABAergic interneurones critically affects hippocampus-dependent spatial memory in mice. To advance the understanding of how GABAergic interneurones contribute to synchronous network activity and affect memory, we set out to manipulate the activity of GABAergic interneurones locally in freely moving mice. Selective interference with GABAergic interneurone activity in the hippocampal formation is achieved by virus-mediated expression of the light-activated Channelrhodopsin-2. The simultaneous expression of a fluorescent marker led to the identification of a novel class of GABAergic neurones that are not ‘interneurones’ but project long-distance, coupling bidirectionally the hippocampus and medial entorhinal cortex, i.e. two major brain regions involved in spatial representation. Here we propose to investigate the role of this novel class of GABAergic neurones employing electrophysiological in vivo recordings in behaving mice.