Abstract
The temporal relationship between the activities of neurons in biological neural systems is critically important for the correct delivery of the functionality of these systems. Fine measurement of temporal relationships of neural activities using micro-electrodes is possible but this approach is very limited due to spatial constraints in the context of physiologically valid settings of neural systems. Optical imaging with voltage-sensitive dyes or calcium dyes can provide data about the activity patterns of many neurons in physiologically valid settings, but the data is relatively noisy. Here we propose a numerical methodology for the analysis of optical neuro-imaging data that allows robust analysis of the dynamics of temporal relationships of neural activities. We provide a detailed description of the methodology and we also assess its robustness. The proposed methodology is applied to analyse the relationship between the activity patterns of PY neurons in the crab stomatogastric ganglion. We show for the first time in a physiologically valid setting that as expected on the basis of earlier results of single neuron recordings exposure to dopamine de-synchronises the activity of these neurons. We also discuss the wider implications and application of the proposed methodology.
Highlights
IntroductionThe dynamics of the temporal relationship of the activities of neurons forming neural circuits is critically important for the flexible and adaptive delivery of the functionality of these circuits (note: in this paper we use the term neural activity to mean the variation of the membrane potential of a neuron, including spikes, sub-threshold membrane potential changes, and any other membrane potential changes; this term is not used to mean spike count or some other kind of statistical summary metric of the activity of a neuron) (Harris-Warrick et al 1992; Fdez Galan et al 2004; Hill et al 2012; Bruno et al 2015)
The dynamics of the temporal relationship of the activities of neurons forming neural circuits is critically important for the flexible and adaptive delivery of the functionality of these circuits (Harris-Warrick et al 1992; Fdez Galan et al 2004; Hill et al 2012; Bruno et al 2015)
In the case of epilepsy a switch to excessive synchronisation of neural activities breaks down the functionality of many neural circuits and neural systems formed by them (Feldt Muldoon et al 2013; Engel et al 2013)
Summary
The dynamics of the temporal relationship of the activities of neurons forming neural circuits is critically important for the flexible and adaptive delivery of the functionality of these circuits (note: in this paper we use the term neural activity to mean the variation of the membrane potential of a neuron, including spikes, sub-threshold membrane potential changes, and any other membrane potential changes; this term is not used to mean spike count or some other kind of statistical summary metric of the activity of a neuron) (Harris-Warrick et al 1992; Fdez Galan et al 2004; Hill et al 2012; Bruno et al 2015). Switching between synchronised and de-synchronised patterns of activity of neurons forming functional circuits in the hippocampus plays a fundamental role in memory formation, maintenance and recall in vertebrate brains (Axmacher et al 2006; Robbe et al 2006). The combination of the preferences determines the actual receptive field of the neuron Both relatively simple and complex changes in the temporal relationship of neural activities can play a critical role in the delivery of the functionality of neural circuits. Synchronisation of the activity of neurons is a common pattern across biological neural systems and plays a critical role in the functionality of many neural circuits (Axmacher et al 2006; Robbe et al 2006; Feldt Muldoon et al 2013). In many theoretical models of neural circuits temporary synchronisation of neural activities is at the core of the functionality of the model circuit (Abeles et al 2004; Ikegaya et al 2004; Burkitt and Clark 1999)
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