RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Theta Rhythmic Clock-Like Activity of Single Units in the Mouse Hippocampus
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 4415
OP 4420
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3851-15.2016
VO 36
IS 16
A1 Lu Zhang
A1 Xiaoyu Ma
A1 Guifen Chen
A1 Edi Barkai
A1 Longnian Lin
YR 2016
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/36/16/4415.abstract
AB Theta rhythmic clock-like activity was observed in a small group of hippocampal CA1 neurons in freely behaving mice. These neurons were only persistently activated during theta states of waking exploration and rapid eye movement sleep, but were almost silent during the non-theta state of slow-wave sleep. Interestingly, these cells displayed a theta clock-like simple-spike firing pattern, and were capable of firing one spike per theta cycle during theta states. This is the first report of a unique class of hippocampal neurons with a clock-like firing pattern at the theta rhythm. We speculate that these cells may act as a temporal reference to participate in the theta-related temporal coding in the hippocampus.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Theta oscillations, as the predominant rhythms in the hippocampus during waking exploration and rapid eye movement sleep, may be critical for temporal coding/decoding of neuronal information, and theta-phase precession in hippocampal place cells is one of the best demonstrations of such temporal coding. Here, we show that a unique small class of hippocampal CA1 neurons fired with a theta rhythmic clock-like firing pattern during theta states. These firing characteristics support the notion that these neurons may play a critical role in theta-related temporal coding in the hippocampus.