Inhibition Controls Asynchronous States of Neuronal Networks

Computations in cortical circuits require action potentials from excitatory and inhibitory neurons. In this mini-review, I first provide a quick overview of findings that indicate that GABAergic neurons play a fundamental role in coordinating spikes and generating synchronized network activity. Next, I argue that these observations helped popularize the notion that network oscillations require a high degree of spike correlations among interneurons which, in turn, produce synchronous inhibition of the local microcircuit. The aim of this text is to discuss some recent experimental and computational findings that support a complementary view: one in which interneurons participate actively in producing asynchronous states in cortical networks. This requires a proper mixture of shared excitation and inhibition leading to asynchronous activity between neighboring cells. Such contribution from interneurons would be extremely important because it would tend to reduce the spike correlation between neighboring pyramidal cells, a drop in redundancy that could enhance the information-processing capacity of neural networks.