Electrophysiology and morphology of a new type of cell within layer II of the rat lateral entorhinal cortex in vitro.

Using a combination of intracellular recording and morphological techniques, we describe the properties of a new cell type within layer II of the lateral entorhinal cortex. A thick and bifurcating apical dendrite and thinner basal dendrites extended from the pyramidal shaped cell body. The axon ramified within all superficial layers of the lateral entorhinal cortex. These pyramidal-like cells exhibited 2 pronounced electrophysiological features; a high threshold for spike generation, and their prominent excitatory synaptic potentials with little inhibition following lateral entorhinal cortex stimulation. The electrophysiological properties and the axonal morphology suggest that this cell type has a local information processing role within the lateral entorhinal cortex.