Back to Search
Start Over
Neuronal Dynamics Underlying Communication Signals in a Weakly Electric Fish: Implications for Connectivity in a Pacemaker Network
- Source :
- Neuroscience. 401
- Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- Neuronal networks can produce stable oscillations and synchrony that are under tight control yet flexible enough to rapidly switch between dynamical states. The pacemaker nucleus in the weakly electric fish comprises a network of electrically coupled neurons that fire synchronously at high frequency. This activity sets the timing for an oscillating electric organ discharge with the lowest cycle-to-cycle variability of all known biological oscillators. Despite this high temporal precision, pacemaker activity is behaviorally modulated on millisecond time-scales for the generation of electrocommunication signals. The network mechanisms that allow for this combination of stability and flexibility are not well understood. In this study, we use an in vitro pacemaker preparation from Apteronotus leptorhynchus to characterize the neural responses elicited by the synaptic inputs underlying electrocommunication. These responses involve a variable increase in firing frequency and a prominent desynchronization of neurons that recovers within 5 oscillation cycles. Using a previously developed computational model of the pacemaker network, we show that the frequency changes and rapid resynchronization observed experimentally are most easily explained when model neurons are interconnected more densely and with higher coupling strengths than suggested by published data. We suggest that the pacemaker network achieves both stability and flexibility by balancing coupling strength with interconnectivity and that variation in these network features may provide a substrate for species-specific evolution of electrocommunication signals.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Action Potentials
Stability (probability)
Electrocommunication
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Biological Clocks
Neural Pathways
medicine
Animals
Electric fish
Physics
Neurons
Millisecond
Electric Organ
biology
Oscillation
General Neuroscience
Gymnotiformes
biology.organism_classification
Electric Stimulation
Coupling (electronics)
030104 developmental biology
medicine.anatomical_structure
Apteronotus leptorhynchus
Nucleus
Neuroscience
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 18737544
- Volume :
- 401
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Neuroscience
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....54f54b852329f75261883782469f8517