Oscillator Motif as Design Pattern for the Spinal Cord Circuitry Reconstruction

Abstract

This work is dedicated to the reverse engineering of the basic circuit motif of more complicated neural networks in the central nervous system (CNS). In this work, we introduce and evaluate a new approach to the simulation of the oscillator motif. The microcircuit of the oscillator motif is built using the 4 frequent in the central nervous system motifs: feedback inhibition, rhythmic excitation, divergence, and convergence. The simulation indicates four basic neural activity generation modes with minimal weights of connections between four nuclei, maximal weights between nuclei, weights in between the maximal and minimal, and the involvement of inhibitory nucleus 3 that suppresses the output neuronal activity effectively. To test the oscillator motif and comparing the generated activity, we used three neurosimulators: NEURON, NEST, GRAS.