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March 16, 2007
If you thought being inhibited set you behind the pack, you're wrong, particularly if you're a neocortical circuit in the brain. Scientists at Brown University recently announced that it's the inhibitory neurons in our brains that are in control, and often silence their excitatory neighboring cells.
Fast spiking inhibitory neurons expressing green fluorescent protein in the somatosensory cortex of a mouse. credit: Z.J. Huang
To determine who was in charge, the researchers recorded the activity of excitatory and inhibitory cells in the neocortex with tiny electrodes. To tell the difference between the two cell types the researchers used inhibitory cells engineered to glow green because they express a jelly fish protein.
"These results help us understand the mechanisms of neocortical processing" says Scott Cruikshank, lead author on the paper. Now the researchers say it's becoming more clear how sensory information such as taste, sight, sound, or touch comes into the cells of the neocortex from the thalamus. The inhibitory neurons receive stronger and faster input, which allows them to respond quickly. It is these inhibitory cells which tell other neurons when to stop. Without that "safety" of the inhibitory cells, the excitatory cells can send the brain into a seizure.
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