A Subtype of Inhibitory Interneuron with Intrinsic Persistent Activity in Human and Monkey Neocortex
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A critical step in understanding the neural basis of human cognitive functions is to identify neuronal types in the neocortex. In this study, we performed whole-cell recording from human cortical slices and found a distinct subpopulation of neurons with intrinsic persistent activity that could be triggered by single action potentials (APs) but terminated by bursts of APs. This persistent activity was associated with a depolarizing plateau potential induced by the activation of a persistent Na + current. Single-cell RT-PCR revealed that these neurons were inhibitory interneurons. This type of neuron was found in different cortical regions, including temporal, frontal, occipital, and parietal cortices in human and also in frontal and temporal lobes of nonhuman primate but not in rat cortical tissues, suggesting that it could be unique to primates. The characteristic persistent activity in these inhibitory interneurons may contribute to the regulation of pyramidal cell activity and participate in cortical processing.
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There is evidence for significant neuronal differences between rodents and humans, including distinct membrane and synaptic properties and dendritic complexity of human neurons that might contribute to human-specific signal processing.
“Indeed there is evidence for significant neuronal differences between rodents and human; for example, distinct membrane8,9 and synaptic10–14 properties and dendritic complexity15–17 of human neurons might contribute to human specific signal processing.”
From Transcriptomic and morphophysiological evidence for a specialized human cortical GABAergic cell type (2018) · cites this paper as [9]
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- Authors
- Wang, B., Yin, L., Zou, X., Ye, M., Liu, Y., He, T., Deng, S., Jiang, Y., Zheng, R., Wang, Y., Yang, M., Lu, H., Wu, S., & Shu, Y.
- Affiliations
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Beijing Normal University (CN)
- Wenzhou Medical University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Shu, Yousheng
- ORCID
- Venue
- Cell Reports
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-03
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1450-1458
- ISSN
- 2211-1247 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2123546263
- Cited by
- 40
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 2.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Cell Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Ion channel regulation and function
- Keywords
- inhibitory interneurons, persistent neuronal activity, action potential bursts, human neocortex, primate neocortex, single-cell RT-PCR
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