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Axons Predict Neuronal Connectivity Within and Between Cortical Columns and Serve as Primary Classifiers of Interneurons in a Cortical Column

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Book cover New Aspects of Axonal Structure and Function

Abstract

The axonal projections of nerve cells have been used to infer synaptic connectivity ever since the drawings of Ramon y Cajal more than a hundred years ago. Here we review the assumptions behind these studies and report how axonal projections of thalamic and cortical neurons can be used to anatomically define cortical columns as innervation volumes in rat barrel cortex. We then apply this analysis to cortical interneurons and illustrate that it is the axonal projections of interneurons which best permit their functional classification with reference to cortical columns. We conclude that the axons of cortical nerve cells should serve as their primary classifiers, because they best indicate their function in the neocortical neuronal network.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Bert Sakmann for inspiration, guidance, and continued support of many of the studies summarized in this chapter, and to the Max Planck Society and the Helmholtz Alliance for Systems Biology for funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany

    Moritz Helmstaedter

  2. Research Centre Jülich GmbH, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, INM-2, Jülich, Germany

    Dirk Feldmeyer

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Dirk Feldmeyer

Authors
  1. Moritz Helmstaedter
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  2. Dirk Feldmeyer
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Correspondence to Moritz Helmstaedter .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Neurosciences Medicine, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, 52425, Germany

    Dirk Feldmeyer

  2. Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, 52425, Germany

    Joachim H.R. Lübke

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Helmstaedter, M., Feldmeyer, D. (2010). Axons Predict Neuronal Connectivity Within and Between Cortical Columns and Serve as Primary Classifiers of Interneurons in a Cortical Column. In: Feldmeyer, D., Lübke, J. (eds) New Aspects of Axonal Structure and Function. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1676-1_8

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