Submitted on March 31, 2009
Revised on April 27, 2009
Accepted on April 28, 2009
Identifying the functional role of Martinotti cells in cortical sensory processing
James C. H. Cottam1*
1 University College London
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: j.cottam{at}ucl.ac.uk.
Inhibitory interneurons are highly diverse but the functional significance of their diversity is not yet well understood. This presents a barrier to understanding neural computation at the local circuit level. This review focuses on a study by Murayama et al. (2009), who used a novel in vivo technique in neocortex to demonstrate a specific sensory processing function of dendritic-targeting Martinotti interneurons. Martinotti cell function arises from their interaction with layer 5 pyramidal cell dendrites.
