Axon Collaterals and Brain States

Multiple mechanisms have been identified as relevant to plasticity, functional stability, and reliable processing across brain states. In the context of stability under “ever-changing conditions” (this Topic), the role of axons has been relatively under-investigated. The highly branched topologies of many axons, however, seem well designed to differentially recruit and regulate distributed postsynaptic groups, possibly in a state-dependent fashion. In this Perspective, I briefly discuss several examples of axon collateralization, and then some of the branch-specific features that might subserve differential recruitment and whole brain activation. An emerging principle is that the number of collaterals and number of target structures are not stereotyped. Rather, axons originating from one defined source typically send branches to diversified subsets of target areas. This could achieve heterogeneous inputs, with different degrees of synchronicity. Variability of neuronal responses has been suggested as inversely proportional to the degree of temporally correlated input. Increased input homogeneity, driven by sensory stimulation or behavioral conditions, is reported to reduce neuronal variability, with axon collateralization potentially having an important role.