A network of electrically coupled cells in the cochlear nucleus might allow for adaptive information

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event A network of electrically coupled cells in the cochlear nucleus might allow for adaptive information Andreas Neef1, 2* 1 Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Germany 2 Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-organization, Germany Information about the temporal structure of the sound impinging on our ears is conveyed to the brain solely by the pattern of action potentials of the auditory nerve fibres (ANFs). Each of these ANFs receives input from only a single specialized ribbon synapse of a sensory cell, the inner hair cell The first stage in the auditory pathway at which ANFs converge is the cochlear nucleus (CN). At this stage a variety of different postsynaptic activity pattern in different neuronal types is computed. Examples are multipolar cells (chopper cells) whoch display periodic peri-stimulus time histograms (PSTHs) and onset neurons, which fire action potentials only at sound onset.Here I focus on the information processing in a particular type of CN neurons: the bushy cells. Upon stimulation with a very loud sound, most bushy cells display firing patterns similar to those of ANFs, with an initial firing rate of 500 to 1000 Hz and a subsequent rate adaptation during the first 10 ms after sound onset followed by a rather constant firing rate of 100 to 300 Hz for the remainder of the sound duration. However in a sizable subset of bushy cells the instantaneous firing rate at sound onset is as high as 3 to 10 kHz. Consequently the first spike latency (after sound onset) can be as low as 100 microseconds (see for example Strenzke et al. 2009).Here I use a combination of biophysically motivated modeling of the signaling transduction from inner hair cells synaptic signaling to action potential patterns in the ANFs until the integration of postsynaptic signals in the bushy cells. Recent findings (Gomez-Nieto and Rubio, 2009) suggest that bushy cells are electrically coupled by gap junctions. If such an electrical coupling is introduced to the model, a second level of information convergence is introduced. Analyzing the consequences for the information that the bushy cells’ action potential patterns contain about the temporal structure of the stimulus, I suggest that the coupling by gap junctions might allow to increase the onset response as well as the dynamic range. Conference: Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 30 Sep - 2 Oct, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Information processing in neurons and networks Citation: Neef A (2009). A network of electrically coupled cells in the cochlear nucleus might allow for adaptive information. Front. Comput. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.10.2009.14.059 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 26 Aug 2009; Published Online: 26 Aug 2009. * Correspondence: Andreas Neef, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Göttingen, Germany, andreas@nld.ds.mpg.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Andreas Neef Google Andreas Neef Google Scholar Andreas Neef PubMed Andreas Neef Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.