Input synchrony and the irregular firing of cortical neurons

Stevens, C. F., Zador, A. M. (1998) Input synchrony and the irregular firing of cortical neurons. Nature Neuroscience, 1 (3). pp. 210-217. ISSN 10976256 (ISSN)

URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10195145
DOI: 10.1038/659

Abstract

Cortical neurons in the waking brain fire highly irregular, seemingly random, spike trains in response to constant sensory stimulation, whereas In vitro they fire regularly in response to constant current injection. To test whether, as has been suggested, this high in vivo variability could be due to the postsynaptic currents generated by independent synaptic inputs, we injected synthetic synaptic current into neocortical neurons in brain slices. We report that independent inputs cannot account for this high variability, but this variability can be explained by a simple alternative model of the synaptic drive in which inputs arrive synchronously. Our results suggest that synchrony may be important in the neural code by providing a means for encoding signals with high temporal fidelity over a population of neurons.

Item Type: Paper
Uncontrolled Keywords: action potential animal article biological model brain cortex cytology electrostimulation excitatory postsynaptic potential in vitro study Long Evans rat nerve cell nerve cell inhibition patch clamp physiology rat synapse time Action Potentials Animals Cerebral Cortex Electric Stimulation Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials Models Neurological Neural Inhibition Neurons Patch Clamp Techniques Rats Rats Long Evans Synapses Time Factors
Subjects: organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > tissues types and functions > cerebral cortex
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Zador lab
Depositing User: Leigh Johnson
Date: 1998
Date Deposited: 27 Mar 2012 20:54
Last Modified: 23 Feb 2017 21:13
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/25628

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