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Cell-type-specific cholinergic control of granular retrosplenial cortex with implications for angular velocity coding
Izabela Jedrasiak-Cape1, Chloe Rybicki-Kler2, Isla Brooks1
1Dept. of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States.
Progress in Neurobiology
|July 10, 2025
Summary
Low-rheobase (LR) neurons in the retrosplenial cortex do not exhibit persistent firing with cholinergic activation, unlike other neurons. This distinct property allows LR neurons to compute angular head velocity (AHV) reliably during spatial navigation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Computational Neuroscience
Background:
- Cholinergic receptor activation influences cortical pyramidal neuron firing, crucial for spatial navigation theories.
- The granular retrosplenial cortex (RSG) plays a vital role in spatial behaviors, but the effect of acetylcholine on its neurons remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of acetylcholine on neurons within the granular retrosplenial cortex (RSG).
- To characterize a distinct RSG cell type, the low-rheobase (LR) neuron, and its response to cholinergic stimulation in the context of spatial navigation.
Main Methods:
- Transcriptomic, morphological, and biophysical characterization of RSG neuronal subtypes.
- Electrophysiological recordings to assess neuronal firing patterns in response to cholinergic agonists.
- Computational modeling to evaluate the functional role of observed neuronal properties.
Main Results:
- A unique RSG cell type, the low-rheobase (LR) neuron, was identified with distinct cholinergic muscarinic receptor expression.
- LR neurons demonstrated a lack of persistent firing under cholinergic stimulation, contrasting with other RSG principal neurons.
- Models indicated that this non-persistent firing enables rapid and acetylcholine-independent computation of angular head velocity (AHV).
Conclusions:
- LR neurons in the RSG possess a specialized mechanism for computing angular head velocity (AHV) irrespective of cholinergic state.
- This finding highlights specialized neural codes within the RSG that support robust spatial navigation across different brain states.
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