Petilla terminology: nomenclature of features of GABAergic interneurons of the cerebral cortex.

Giorgio A Ascoli (1) , Lidia Alonso-Nanclares , Stewart A Anderson , German Barrionuevo , Ruth Benavides-Piccione , Andreas Burkhalter , György Buzsáki , Bruno Cauli , Javier Defelipe , Alfonso Fairén , Dirk Feldmeyer , Gord Fishell , Yves Frégnac (2, 3) , Tamas F Freund , Daniel Gardner , Esther P Gardner , Jesse H Goldberg , Moritz Helmstaedter , Shaul Hestrin , Fuyuki Karube , Zoltán F Kisvárday , Bertrand Lambolez , David A Lewis , Oscar Marin , Henry Markram , Alberto Muñoz , Adam Packer , Carl C H Petersen , Kathleen S Rockland , Jean Rossier , Bernardo Rudy , Peter Somogyi , Jochen F Staiger , Gabor Tamas , Alex M Thomson , Maria Toledo-Rodriguez , Yun Wang , David C West , Rafael Yuste (4)

1 Molecular Neuroscience Department and Center for Neural Informatics, Structures, and Plasticity
2 UNIC - Unité de neurosciences intégratives et computationnelles
3 INAF - Institut de Neurobiologie Alfred Fessard
4 Columbia University [New York]

Neuroscience produces a vast amount of data from an enormous diversity of neurons. A neuronal classification system is essential to organize such data and the knowledge that is derived from them. Classification depends on the unequivocal identification of the features that distinguish one type of neuron from another. The problems inherent in this are particularly acute when studying cortical interneurons. To tackle this, we convened a representative group of researchers to agree on a set of terms to describe the anatomical, physiological and molecular features of GABAergic interneurons of the cerebral cortex. The resulting terminology might provide a stepping stone towards a future classification of these complex and heterogeneous cells. Consistent adoption will be important for the success of such an initiative, and we also encourage the active involvement of the broader scientific community in the dynamic evolution of this project.

Domaines: Neurosciences [q-bio.NC]

Giorgio A Ascoli, Lidia Alonso-Nanclares, Stewart A Anderson, German Barrionuevo, Ruth Benavides-Piccione, et al.. Petilla terminology: nomenclature of features of GABAergic interneurons of the cerebral cortex.. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2008, 9 (7), pp.557-68. ⟨10.1038/nrn2402⟩. ⟨hal-00292588⟩