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    Disparate forms of heterogeneities and interactions among them drive channel decorrelation in the dentate gyrus: Degeneracy and dominance
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    Abstract:
    The ability of a neuronal population to effectuate channel decorrelation, which is one form of response decorrelation, has been identified as an essential prelude to efficient neural encoding. To what extent are diverse forms of local and afferent heterogeneities essential in accomplishing channel decorrelation in the dentate gyrus (DG)? Here, we incrementally incorporated four distinct forms of biological heterogeneities into conductance-based network models of the DG and systematically delineate their relative contributions to channel decorrelation. First, to effectively incorporate intrinsic heterogeneities, we built physiologically validated heterogeneous populations of granule (GC) and basket cells (BC) through independent stochastic search algorithms spanning exhaustive parametric spaces. These stochastic search algorithms, which were independently constrained by experimentally determined ion channels and by neurophysiological signatures, revealed cellular-scale degeneracy in the DG. Specifically, in GC and BC populations, disparate parametric combinations yielded similar physiological signatures, with underlying parameters exhibiting significant variability and weak pair-wise correlations. Second, we introduced synaptic heterogeneities through randomization of local synaptic strengths. Third, in including adult neurogenesis, we subjected the valid model populations to randomized structural plasticity and matched neuronal excitability to electrophysiological data. We assessed networks comprising different combinations of these three local heterogeneities with identical or heterogeneous afferent inputs from the entorhinal cortex. We found that the three forms of local heterogeneities were independently and synergistically capable of mediating significant channel decorrelation when the network was driven by identical afferent inputs. However, when we incorporated afferent heterogeneities into the network to account for the divergence in DG afferent connectivity, the impact of all three forms of local heterogeneities was significantly suppressed by the dominant role of afferent heterogeneities in mediating channel decorrelation. Our results unveil a unique convergence of cellular- and network-scale degeneracy in the emergence of channel decorrelation in the DG, whereby disparate forms of local and afferent heterogeneities could synergistically drive input discriminability.
    Keywords:
    Decorrelation
    In acute experiments on anesthetized and on spinal cats, three major mechanisms of divergent-convergent interrelationships in the spinal cord responsible for the formation of electrical responses in the efferent and afferent links of the spinal reflex apparatus, were electrophysiologically established: 1) afferent-efferent, 2) afferent-interneuron-efferent, and 3) afferent--interneuron-afferent mechanisms each having special features of its structural and functional organization. The first two mechanisms are actualized through mono- and poly-synaptic discharges in the ventral roots, resp., and the third one--through electrotonic potentials and reflexes of the dorsal roots. Intracellular recording of potentials revealed that single interneurons participated in the actualization of the second and third mechanisms of the divergent-convergent interrelationships.
    Interneuron
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    It has been hypothesized that normal pruning of exuberant branching of afferent neurons in the developing cochlea is caused by the arrival of the olivocochlear efferent neurons and the resulting competition for synaptic sites on hair cells. This hypothesis was supported by a report that afferent innervation density on mature outer hair cells (OHCs) is elevated in animals deefferented at birth, before the olivocochlear system reaches the outer hair cell area (Pujol and Carlier [1982] Dev. Brain Res. 3:151-154). In the current study, this claim was evaluated quantitatively at the electron microscopic level in four cats that were de-efferented at birth and allowed to survive for 6-11 months. A semiserial section analysis of 156 OHCs from de-efferented and normal ears showed that, although de-efferentation essentially was complete in all four cases, the number and distribution of afferent terminals on OHCs was indistinguishable from normal, and the morphology of afferent synapses was normal in both the inner hair cell area and the OHC area. Thus, the postnatal presence of an efferent system is not required for the normal development of cochlear afferent innervation, and the synaptic competition hypothesis is not supported.
    It has been hypothesized that normal pruning of exuberant branching of afferent neurons in the developing cochlea is caused by the arrival of the olivocochlear efferent neurons and the resulting competition for synaptic sites on hair cells. This hypothesis was supported by a report that afferent innervation density on mature outer hair cells (OHCs) is elevated in animals deefferented at birth, before the olivocochlear system reaches the outer hair cell area (Pujol and Carlier [1982] Dev. Brain Res. 3:151–154). In the current study, this claim was evaluated quantitatively at the electron microscopic level in four cats that were de-efferented at birth and allowed to survive for 6–11 months. A semiserial section analysis of 156 OHCs from de-efferented and normal ears showed that, although de-efferentation essentially was complete in all four cases, the number and distribution of afferent terminals on OHCs was indistinguishable from normal, and the morphology of afferent synapses was normal in both the inner hair cell area and the OHC area. Thus, the postnatal presence of an efferent system is not required for the normal development of cochlear afferent innervation, and the synaptic competition hypothesis is not supported. J. Comp. Neurol. 423:132–139, 2000. © 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.