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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on January 28, 2009
Cerebral Cortex 2009 19(10):2281-2289; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn246
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Glutamatergic Inhibition in Sensory Neocortex

Charles C. Lee and S. Murray Sherman

Department of Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

Address correspondence to Charles C. Lee, Department of Neurobiology, University of Chicago, 947 East 58th Street, MC 0926, Chicago, IL 60411, USA. Email: clee{at}bsd.uchicago.edu.

In the mammalian brain, glutamate and {gamma}-aminobutyric acid are considered major excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters, respectively. However, we have found evidence that glutamate can also act as a postsynaptic inhibitory neurotransmitter in layer 4 of the neocortex. Using whole-cell recordings from layer 4 neurons in slice preparations from the mouse visual, auditory, and somatosensory cortices, we found that metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) agonists (ACPD, APDC, and DCG IV) elicit a robust, long-lasting hyperpolarization that is abolished by the group II mGluR antagonist, MCCG. This response largely involves a K+ conductance mediated by G-protein activity and GIRK channels. Furthermore, electrical and photostimulation of the intracortical inputs to layer 4 elicits a similar hyperpolarization that is blocked by group II mGluR antagonists. This novel inhibition mediated by group II mGluRs may be an unappreciated mechanism for refining cortical receptive fields in layer 4 and may enable synaptic gain control during periods of high activity.

Key Words: auditory • cortex • layer 4 • layer 6 • metabotropic glutamate receptors • somatosensory • visual


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