Optogenetic Dissection of Entorhinal-Hippocampal Functional Connectivity

We used a combined optogenetic-electrophysiological strategy to determine the functional identity of entorhinal cells with output to the place-cell population in the hippocampus. Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) was expressed selectively in the hippocampus-targeting subset of entorhinal projection neurons by infusing retrogradely transportable ChR2-coding recombinant adeno-associated virus in the hippocampus. Virally transduced ChR2-expressing cells were identified in medial entorhinal cortex as cells that fired at fixed minimal latencies in response to local flashes of light. A large number of responsive cells were grid cells, but short-latency firing was also induced in border cells and head-direction cells, as well as cells with irregular or nonspatial firing correlates, which suggests that place fields may be generated by convergence of signals from a broad spectrum of entorhinal functional cell types.