Overview
- Published in Science on Oct. 30, the study identifies glutamatergic and GABAergic projections from the lateral entorhinal cortex to hippocampal CA3 that act together during learning.
- Glutamatergic input excites CA3 place cells but also recruits feedforward stop signals, while GABAergic input suppresses those stop signals to finely control firing.
- This cooperation boosts ensemble and recurrent CA3 activity, supporting the formation of stable spatial representations during learning.
- Silencing either projection impaired learning of reward locations on a textured treadmill yet left recall of previously learned locations intact.
- The team used patch-clamp electrophysiology and optogenetics in mice, and the authors note potential relevance to memory-related disorders without claiming therapeutic effects.