Document Detail


Functional differentiation of a population of electrically coupled heterogeneous elements in a microcircuit.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  23283325     Owner:  NLM     Status:  In-Data-Review    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Although electrical coupling is present in many microcircuits, the extent to which it will determine neuronal firing patterns and network activity remains poorly understood. This is particularly true when the coupling is present in a population of heterogeneous, or intrinsically distinct, circuit elements. We examine this question in the Aplysia californica feeding motor network in five electrically coupled identified cells, B64, B4/5, B70, B51, and a newly identified interneuron B71. These neurons exhibit distinct activity patterns during the radula retraction phase of motor programs. In a subset of motor programs, retraction can be flexibly extended by adding a phase of network activity (hyper-retraction). This is manifested most prominently as an additional burst in the radula closure motoneuron B8. Two neurons that excite B8 (B51 and B71) and one that inhibits it (B70) are active during hyper-retraction. Consistent with their near synchronous firing, B51 and B71 showed one of the strongest coupling ratios in this group of neurons. Nonetheless, by manipulating their activity, we found that B51 preferentially acted as a driver of B64/B71 activity, whereas B71 played a larger role in driving B8 activity. In contrast, B70 was weakly coupled to other neurons and its inhibition of B8 counteracted the excitatory drive to B8. Finally, the distinct firing patterns of the electrically coupled neurons were fine-tuned by their intrinsic properties and the largely chemical cross-inhibition between some of them. Thus, the small microcircuit of the Aplysia feeding network is advantageous in understanding how a population of electrically coupled heterogeneous neurons may fulfill specific network functions.
Authors:
Kosai Sasaki; Elizabeth C Cropper; Klaudiusz R Weiss; Jian Jing
Related Documents :
23060195 - Complex brain and optic lobes in an early cambrian arthropod.
23031175 - Real-time two-dimensional asynchronous control of a computer cursor with a single subdu...
8556585 - A neurologist's reflections on boxing. v. conclude remarks.
23063495 - Spatial extent of beta oscillatory activity in and between the subthalamic nucleus and ...
8917765 - The naturally occurring accommodative response of the oscar, astronotus ocellatus, to v...
10490935 - Can hebbian volume learning explain discontinuities in cortical maps?
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience     Volume:  33     ISSN:  1529-2401     ISO Abbreviation:  J. Neurosci.     Publication Date:  2013 Jan 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2013-01-03     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  8102140     Medline TA:  J Neurosci     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  93-105     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029, and School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China.
Export Citation:
APA/MLA Format     Download EndNote     Download BibTex
MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


Previous Document:  Testing the sorption hypothesis in olfaction: a limited role for sniff strength in shaping primary o...
Next Document:  Different orientation tuning of near- and far-surround suppression in macaque primary visual cortex ...