Temporal dynamics of L5 dendrites in medial prefrontal cortex regulate integration versus coincidence detection of afferent inputs

Distinct brain regions are highly interconnected via long-range projections. How this inter-regional communication occurs depends not only upon which subsets of postsynaptic neurons receive input, but also, and equally importantly, upon what cellular subcompartments the projections target. Neocortical pyramidal neurons receive input onto their apical dendrites. However, physiological characterization of these inputs thus far has been exclusively somatocentric, leaving how the dendrites respond to spatial and temporal patterns of input unexplored. Here we used a combination of optogenetics with multisite electrode recordings to simultaneously measure dendritic and somatic responses to afferent fiber activation in two different populations of layer 5 (L5) pyramidal neurons in the rat medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). We found that commissural inputs evoked monosynaptic responses in both intratelencephalic (IT) and pyramidal tract (PT) dendrites, whereas monosynaptic hippocampal input primarily targeted IT, but not PT, dendrites. To understand the role of dendritic integration in the processing of long-range inputs, we used dynamic clamp to simulate synaptic currents in the dendrites. IT dendrites functioned as temporal integrators that were particularly responsive to dendritic inputs within the gamma frequency range (40-140 Hz). In contrast, PT dendrites acted as coincidence detectors by responding to spatially distributed signals within a narrow time window. Thus, the PFC extracts information from different brain regions through the combination of selective dendritic targeting and the distinct dendritic physiological properties of L5 pyramidal dendrites.