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Receptive field sizes and neuronal encoding bandwidth are constrained by axonal conduction delays

Studies on population coding implicitly assume that spikes from the presynaptic cells arrive simultaneously at the integrating neuron. In natural neuronal populations, this is usually not the case—neuronal signaling takes time and populations cover a certain space. The spread of spike arrival times...

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Autores principales: Hladnik, Tim C., Grewe, Jan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10446211/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37566629
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010871
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author Hladnik, Tim C.
Grewe, Jan
author_facet Hladnik, Tim C.
Grewe, Jan
author_sort Hladnik, Tim C.
collection PubMed
description Studies on population coding implicitly assume that spikes from the presynaptic cells arrive simultaneously at the integrating neuron. In natural neuronal populations, this is usually not the case—neuronal signaling takes time and populations cover a certain space. The spread of spike arrival times depends on population size, cell density and axonal conduction velocity. Here we analyze the consequences of population size and axonal conduction delays on the stimulus encoding performance in the electrosensory system of the electric fish Apteronotus leptorhynchus. We experimentally locate p-type electroreceptor afferents along the rostro-caudal body axis and relate locations to neurophysiological response properties. In an information-theoretical approach we analyze the coding performance in homogeneous and heterogeneous populations. As expected, the amount of information increases with population size and, on average, heterogeneous populations encode better than the average same-size homogeneous population, if conduction delays are compensated for. The spread of neuronal conduction delays within a receptive field strongly degrades encoding of high-frequency stimulus components. Receptive field sizes typically found in the electrosensory lateral line lobe of A. leptorhynchus appear to be a good compromise between the spread of conduction delays and encoding performance. The limitations imposed by finite axonal conduction velocity are relevant for any converging network as is shown by model populations of LIF neurons. The bandwidth of natural stimuli and the maximum meaningful population sizes are constrained by conduction delays and may thus impact the optimal design of nervous systems.
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spelling pubmed-104462112023-08-24 Receptive field sizes and neuronal encoding bandwidth are constrained by axonal conduction delays Hladnik, Tim C. Grewe, Jan PLoS Comput Biol Research Article Studies on population coding implicitly assume that spikes from the presynaptic cells arrive simultaneously at the integrating neuron. In natural neuronal populations, this is usually not the case—neuronal signaling takes time and populations cover a certain space. The spread of spike arrival times depends on population size, cell density and axonal conduction velocity. Here we analyze the consequences of population size and axonal conduction delays on the stimulus encoding performance in the electrosensory system of the electric fish Apteronotus leptorhynchus. We experimentally locate p-type electroreceptor afferents along the rostro-caudal body axis and relate locations to neurophysiological response properties. In an information-theoretical approach we analyze the coding performance in homogeneous and heterogeneous populations. As expected, the amount of information increases with population size and, on average, heterogeneous populations encode better than the average same-size homogeneous population, if conduction delays are compensated for. The spread of neuronal conduction delays within a receptive field strongly degrades encoding of high-frequency stimulus components. Receptive field sizes typically found in the electrosensory lateral line lobe of A. leptorhynchus appear to be a good compromise between the spread of conduction delays and encoding performance. The limitations imposed by finite axonal conduction velocity are relevant for any converging network as is shown by model populations of LIF neurons. The bandwidth of natural stimuli and the maximum meaningful population sizes are constrained by conduction delays and may thus impact the optimal design of nervous systems. Public Library of Science 2023-08-11 /pmc/articles/PMC10446211/ /pubmed/37566629 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010871 Text en © 2023 Hladnik, Grewe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hladnik, Tim C.
Grewe, Jan
Receptive field sizes and neuronal encoding bandwidth are constrained by axonal conduction delays
title Receptive field sizes and neuronal encoding bandwidth are constrained by axonal conduction delays
title_full Receptive field sizes and neuronal encoding bandwidth are constrained by axonal conduction delays
title_fullStr Receptive field sizes and neuronal encoding bandwidth are constrained by axonal conduction delays
title_full_unstemmed Receptive field sizes and neuronal encoding bandwidth are constrained by axonal conduction delays
title_short Receptive field sizes and neuronal encoding bandwidth are constrained by axonal conduction delays
title_sort receptive field sizes and neuronal encoding bandwidth are constrained by axonal conduction delays
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10446211/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37566629
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010871
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