Correlated Somatosensory Input in Parvalbumin/Pyramidal Cells in Mouse Motor Cortex

In mammalian cortex, feedforward excitatory connections recruit feedforward inhibition. This is often carried by parvalbumin (PV+) interneurons, which may densely connect to local pyramidal (Pyr) neurons. Whether this inhibition affects all local excitatory cells indiscriminately or is targeted to specific subnetworks is unknown. Here, we test how feedforward inhibition is recruited by using two-channel circuit mapping to excite cortical and thalamic inputs to PV+ interneurons and Pyr neurons to mouse primary vibrissal motor cortex (M1). Single Pyr and PV+ neurons receive input from both cortex and thalamus. Connected pairs of PV+ interneurons and excitatory Pyr neurons receive correlated cortical and thalamic inputs. While PV+ interneurons are more likely to form local connections to Pyr neurons, Pyr neurons are much more likely to form reciprocal connections with PV+ interneurons that inhibit them. This suggests that Pyr and PV ensembles may be organized based on their local and long-range connections, an organization that supports the idea of local subnetworks for signal transduction and processing. Excitatory inputs to M1 can thus target inhibitory networks in a specific pattern which permits recruitment of feedforward inhibition to specific subnetworks within the cortical column.