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Electrical coupling between hippocampal neurons: contrasting roles of principal cell gap junctions and interneuron gap junctions

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Abstract

There is considerable experimental evidence, anatomical and physiological, that gap junctions exist in the hippocampus. Electrical coupling through these gap junctions may be divided into three types: between principal neurons, between interneurons and at mixed chemical (glutamatergic)/electrical synapses. An approach, combining in vitro experimental with modeling techniques, sheds some light on the functional consequences of electrical coupling, for network oscillations and for seizures. Additionally, in vivo experiments, using mouse connexin knockouts, suggest that the presence of electrical coupling is important for optimal performance on selected behavioral tasks; however, the interpretation of such data, in cellular terms, has so far proven difficult. Given that invertebrate central pattern generators so often depend on both chemical and electrical synapses, our hypothesis is that hippocampus-mediated and -influenced behaviors will act likewise. Experiments, likely hard ones, will be required to test this intuition.

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Acknowledgments

R.D.T. acknowledges support from IBM, NIH/NINDS (RO1NS044133) and NeuroCure; M.A.W., the Wellcome Trust; R.G., CONACYT (CB254339; Fronteras 1600) and DFG (SFB 1134); and A.D., the DFG (SFB 1134). We thank our many collaborators, including Nancy Kopell, Dietmar Schmitz, James I. Nagy, John E. Rash, Hannah Monyer and Nikolaus Maier.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Sciences, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, 10598, USA

    Roger D. Traub

  2. Hull York Medical School, University of York, Heslington, YO10 5DD, UK

    Miles A. Whittington

  3. Department of Pharmacobiology, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN, Calzada de los Tenorios 235, 14330, Mexico City, Mexico

    Rafael Gutiérrez

  4. Institut für Physiologie und Pathophysiologie, Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 326, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Rafael Gutiérrez & Andreas Draguhn

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  1. Roger D. Traub
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  2. Miles A. Whittington
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  3. Rafael Gutiérrez
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  4. Andreas Draguhn
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Correspondence to Roger D. Traub.

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Traub, R.D., Whittington, M.A., Gutiérrez, R. et al. Electrical coupling between hippocampal neurons: contrasting roles of principal cell gap junctions and interneuron gap junctions. Cell Tissue Res 373, 671–691 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-018-2881-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-018-2881-3

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