Figure 1. Dendritic disinhibitory circuit as a mechanism for pathway-specific gating.

(a) Subcellular microcircuit motif for gating through dendritic disinhibition. Dendrites of pyramidal neurons are inhibited by SOM interneurons, which are themselves inhibited by VIP interneurons. A control input (representing a context or a task rule) targeting VIP interneurons (and potentially SOM neurons) can thereby disinhibit pyramidal neuron dendrites, opening the gate for excitatory inputs targeting these dendrites. (b) Circuit configuration for pathway-specific gating. Pyramidal neurons receive converging inputs from multiple pathways, for example, visual and auditory. Single neurons in these areas are selective to multiple stimulus features, indicated here by colour and frequency. The processing of each pathway is regulated by the control input. (c) Inputs from different pathways target distinct subsets of dendrites of these pyramidal neurons. A pathway can be gated-on by specifically disinhibiting the dendrites that it targets, corresponding to an alignment between excitation and disinhibition. Disinhibition is represented by dashed lines.