TY - INPR N1 - © 2019, Cornford et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). TI - Dendritic NMDA receptors in parvalbumin neurons enable strong and stable neuronal assemblies AV - public Y1 - 2019/10/28/ VL - 8 JF - eLife A1 - Cornford, JH A1 - Mercier, MS A1 - Leite, M A1 - Magloire, V A1 - Häusser, M A1 - Kullmann, DM N2 - Parvalbumin-expressing (PV+) GABAergic interneurons mediate feedforward and feedback inhibition and have a key role in gamma oscillations and information processing. The importance of fast synaptic recruitment, action potential initiation and repolarization, and rapid synchronous GABA release by PV+ cells is well established. In contrast, the functional significance of PV+ cell NMDA receptors (NMDARs), which generate relatively slow postsynaptic currents, is unclear. Underlining their importance, several studies implicate PV+ cell NMDAR disruption in impaired network function and circuit pathologies. Here, we show that dendritic NMDARs underlie supralinear integration of feedback excitation from local pyramidal neurons onto mouse CA1 PV+ cells. Furthermore, by incorporating NMDARs at feedback connections onto PV+ cells in spiking networks, we show that these receptors enable cooperative recruitment of PV+ interneurons, strengthening and stabilising principal cell assemblies. Failure of this phenomenon provides a parsimonious explanation for cognitive and sensory gating deficits in pathologies with impaired PV+ NMDAR signalling. ID - discovery10084606 PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.49872 SN - 2050-084X ER -