Wiring Economy of Neocortical Axon Arbors

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Wiring Economy of Neocortical Axon Arbors J. M. Budd1*, K. Kovács2, A. S. Ferecskó3, P. Buzás4, U. T. Eysel2 and Z. F. Kisvárday5 1 University of Sussex, School of Informatics, United Kingdom 2 Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Department of Neurophysiology, Germany 3 University of Birmingham, College of Medical & Dental Sciences, School of Clinical & Experimental Medicine, United Kingdom 4 University of Pécs, Institute of Physiology, Medical School, Hungary 5 University of Debrecen, Department of Anatomy, Histology & Embryology, Hungary Discovering the organizational principles of cerebral cortex represents a fundamental challenge in neuroscience. Rámon y Cajal proposed that general laws of conservation concerning cellular material (axon and dendritic ‘wire’) and conduction delay regulate neuronal morphology. Yet despite more than a century of research it is not known how well these laws apply to axon arbors in neocortex. Using a variety of graph optimization algorithms, we investigated Cajal’s proposed economy laws in relation to detailed 3D reconstructions of spiny and basket cell axon arbors obtained from in vivo labelling experiments in adult cat visual cortex. Our analysis of these data suggests that individual neocortical axon arbors are not minimized for axonal length (cellular material) but neither are they optimized for conduction delay. Instead neocortical axon arbors in contacting thousands of spatially distributed postsynaptic targets appear to trade-off saving axonal wire for more rapid communication. In particular, the branched structure of neocortical arbors seems to preserve the relationship between axonal propagation latency and cortical distance and ensures a low degree of temporal dispersion axonal latencies, which may be tighter for inhibitory basket cell than excitatory spiny cell axons. This work has implications for our understanding of neocortical organizing principles, coding, and communication. Acknowledgements Research funded by MTA-TKI (242), DFG (SFB509), and the FACETS (FP6-IST-FETPI) project. Keywords: Molecular and cellular neurobiology, Neuroscience Conference: 13th Conference of the Hungarian Neuroscience Society (MITT), Budapest, Hungary, 20 Jan - 22 Jan, 2011. Presentation Type: Abstract Topic: Molecular and cellular neurobiology Citation: Budd JM, Kovács K, Ferecskó AS, Buzás P, Eysel UT and Kisvárday ZF (2011). Wiring Economy of Neocortical Axon Arbors. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: 13th Conference of the Hungarian Neuroscience Society (MITT). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2011.84.00101 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: 03 Mar 2011; Published Online: 23 Mar 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. J. M Budd, University of Sussex, School of Informatics, Brighton, United Kingdom, kisvarday@anat.med.unideb.hu 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 J. M Budd K. Kovács A. S Ferecskó P. Buzás U. T Eysel Z. F Kisvárday Google J. M Budd K. Kovács A. S Ferecskó P. Buzás U. T Eysel Z. F Kisvárday Google Scholar J. M Budd K. Kovács A. S Ferecskó P. Buzás U. T Eysel Z. F Kisvárday PubMed J. M Budd K. Kovács A. S Ferecskó P. Buzás U. T Eysel Z. F Kisvárday 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.