Data from: Membrane potential dynamics of spontaneous and visually evoked gamma activity in V1 of awake mice

Cortical gamma activity (30–80 Hz) is believed to play important functions
in neural computation and arises from the interplay of
parvalbumin-expressing interneurons (PV) and pyramidal cells (PYRs).
However, the subthreshold dynamics underlying its emergence in the cortex
of awake animals remain unclear. Here, we characterized the intracellular
dynamics of PVs and PYRs during spontaneous and visually evoked gamma
activity in layers 2/3 of V1 of awake mice using targeted patch-clamp
recordings and synchronous local field potentials (LFPs). Strong gamma
activity patterned in short bouts (one to three cycles), occurred when PVs
and PYRs were depolarizing and entrained their membrane potential dynamics
regardless of the presence of visual stimulation. PV firing phase locked
unconditionally to gamma activity. However, PYRs only phase locked to
visually evoked gamma bouts. Taken together, our results indicate that
gamma activity corresponds to short pulses of correlated background
synaptic activity synchronizing the output of cortical neurons depending
on external sensory drive.