REVIEW ARTICLE published: 24 June 2014 NEUROANATOMY doi: 10.3389/fnana.2014.00052 Revisiting enigmatic cortical calretinin-expressing interneurons Bruno Cauli 1,2,3*, Xiaojuan Zhou 4, Ludovic Tricoire 1,2,3, Xavier Toussay 1,2,3 and Jochen F. Staiger 4* 1 Sorbonne Universités, UPMC University Paris 06, UM CR18, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Paris, France 2 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 8246, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Paris, France 3 Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, UMR-S 1130, Neuroscience Paris Seine, Paris, France 4 Institute for Neuroanatomy, UMG, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany Edited by: Cortical calretinin (CR)-expressing interneurons represent a heterogeneous subpopulation Zsofia Magloczky, Hungarian of about 10–30% of GABAergic interneurons, which altogether total ca. 12–20% of all Academy of Sciences, Hungary cortical neurons. In the rodent neocortex, CR cells display different somatodendritic Reviewed by: morphologies ranging from bipolar to multipolar but the bipolar cells and their variations José A. Armengol, University Pablo de Olavide, Spain dominate. They are also diverse at the molecular level as they were shown to Fiorenzo Conti, Universita express numerous neuropeptides in different combinations including vasoactive intestinal Politecnica delle Marche, Italy polypeptide (VIP), cholecystokinin (CCK), neurokinin B (NKB) corticotrophin releasing *Correspondence: factor (CRF), enkephalin (Enk) but also neuropeptide Y (NPY) and somatostatin (SOM) Bruno Cauli, CNRS-UPMC, to a lesser extent. CR-expressing interneurons exhibit different firing behaviors such as Neuroscience Paris Seine, 9 Quai Saint Bernard, 75005 Paris, France adapting, bursting or irregular. They mainly originate from the caudal ganglionic eminence e-mail:
[email protected]; (CGE) but a subpopulation also derives from the dorsal part of the medial ganglionic Jochen F.Staiger, Institute for eminence (MGE).