Inter-and intra-animal variation in the integrative properties of stellate cells in the medial entorhinal cortex

Abstract

Distinctions between cell types underpin organisational principles for nervous system function. Functional variation also exists between neurons of the same type. This is exemplified by correspondence between grid cell spatial scales and synaptic integrative properties of stellate cells (SCs) in the medial entorhinal cortex. However, we know little about how functional variability is structured either within or between individuals. Using ex-vivo patch-clamp recordings from up to 55 SCs per mouse, we find that integrative properties vary between mice and, in contrast to modularity of grid cell spatial scales, have a continuous dorsoventral organisation. Our results constrain mechanisms for modular grid firing and provide evidence for inter-animal phenotypic variability among neurons of the same type. We suggest that neuron type properties are tuned to circuit level set points that vary within and between animals.

Data availability

Processed data used for analyses and all associated code is available from the GitHub page for the project (https://github.com/MattNolanLab/Inter_Intra_Variation).Raw data has been made available from our institutional repository and can be found under the DOI 10.7488/ds/2765. Scripts that generate the processed data from the raw data will be made available from our GitHub site. We expect to complete documention of these scripts in the next few weeks. We will make the data and scripts freely available when this is complete.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Hugh Pastoll

    Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Derek L Garden

    Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-3336-3791
  3. Ioannis Papastathopoulos

    Centre for Statistics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Gülşen Sürmeli

    Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Matthew F Nolan

    Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    For correspondence
    mattnolan@ed.ac.uk
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1062-6501

Funding

Wellcome (200855/Z/16/Z)

  • Matthew F Nolan

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/L010496/1)

  • Matthew F Nolan

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/1022147/1)

  • Matthew F Nolan

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/H020284/1)

  • Matthew F Nolan

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All experimental procedures were performed under a United Kingdom Home Office license (PC198F2A0) and with approval of the University of Edinburgh's animal welfare committee.

Copyright

© 2020, Pastoll et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Hugh Pastoll
  2. Derek L Garden
  3. Ioannis Papastathopoulos
  4. Gülşen Sürmeli
  5. Matthew F Nolan
(2020)
Inter-and intra-animal variation in the integrative properties of stellate cells in the medial entorhinal cortex
eLife 9:e52258.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.52258

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.52258

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