Abstract
Neurons can carry information with both the synchrony and rate of their spikes. However, it is unknown whether distinct subtypes of neurons are more sensitive to information carried by synchrony versus rate, or vice versa. Here, we address this question using patterned optical stimulation in slices of somatosensory cortex from mouse lines labelling fast-spiking (FS) and regular-spiking (RS) interneurons. We used optical stimulation in layer 2/3 to encode a 1-bit signal using either the synchrony or rate of activity. We then examined the mutual information between this signal and the interneuron responses. We found that for a synchrony encoding, FS interneurons carried more information in the first five milliseconds, while both interneuron subtypes carried more information than excitatory neurons in later responses. For a rate encoding, we found that RS interneurons carried more information after several milliseconds. These data demonstrate that distinct interneuron subtypes in the neocortex have distinct sensitivities to synchrony versus rate codes.
Highlights
Neurons can carry information with both the synchrony and rate of their spikes
When we examined the responses to rate encoding, RS GIN+ interneurons carried more information about the 1-bit signal than either FS GAD67+ or GFP− pyramidal neurons in their later responses
We focused our investigation on layer 2/3 (L2/3) of the somatosensory cortex, as this is a region of the neocortex where synchrony and rate codes have been extensively explored
Summary
Neurons can carry information with both the synchrony and rate of their spikes. it is unknown whether distinct subtypes of neurons are more sensitive to information carried by synchrony versus rate, or vice versa. Inhibitory interneurons that show regularspiking (RS) patterns with spike-frequency adaptation display short-term facilitating presynaptic inputs and typically express somatostatin (SST) These distinct biophysical properties of interneurons are likely relevant to information encoding in the brain[16,20,21]. When we examined the responses to rate encoding, RS GIN+ interneurons carried more information about the 1-bit signal than either FS GAD67+ or GFP− pyramidal neurons in their later responses These data confirm that different types of inhibitory interneurons can integrate information carried by synchrony or rate of activity in different ways. This may be critical for understanding how different pieces of information are encoded and relayed in the neocortex
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