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Active dendrites enable strong but sparse inputs to determine orientation selectivity

The dendrites of neocortical pyramidal neurons are excitable. However, it is unknown how synaptic inputs engage nonlinear dendritic mechanisms during sensory processing in vivo, and how they in turn influence action potential output. Here, we provide a quantitative account of the relationship betwee...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Goetz, Lea, Roth, Arnd, Häusser, Michael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8325157/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34301882
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2017339118
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author Goetz, Lea
Roth, Arnd
Häusser, Michael
author_facet Goetz, Lea
Roth, Arnd
Häusser, Michael
author_sort Goetz, Lea
collection PubMed
description The dendrites of neocortical pyramidal neurons are excitable. However, it is unknown how synaptic inputs engage nonlinear dendritic mechanisms during sensory processing in vivo, and how they in turn influence action potential output. Here, we provide a quantitative account of the relationship between synaptic inputs, nonlinear dendritic events, and action potential output. We developed a detailed pyramidal neuron model constrained by in vivo dendritic recordings. We drive this model with realistic input patterns constrained by sensory responses measured in vivo and connectivity measured in vitro. We show mechanistically that under realistic conditions, dendritic Na(+) and NMDA spikes are the major determinants of neuronal output in vivo. We demonstrate that these dendritic spikes can be triggered by a surprisingly small number of strong synaptic inputs, in some cases even by single synapses. We predict that dendritic excitability allows the 1% strongest synaptic inputs of a neuron to control the tuning of its output. Active dendrites therefore allow smaller subcircuits consisting of only a few strongly connected neurons to achieve selectivity for specific sensory features.
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spelling pubmed-83251572021-08-13 Active dendrites enable strong but sparse inputs to determine orientation selectivity Goetz, Lea Roth, Arnd Häusser, Michael Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Biological Sciences The dendrites of neocortical pyramidal neurons are excitable. However, it is unknown how synaptic inputs engage nonlinear dendritic mechanisms during sensory processing in vivo, and how they in turn influence action potential output. Here, we provide a quantitative account of the relationship between synaptic inputs, nonlinear dendritic events, and action potential output. We developed a detailed pyramidal neuron model constrained by in vivo dendritic recordings. We drive this model with realistic input patterns constrained by sensory responses measured in vivo and connectivity measured in vitro. We show mechanistically that under realistic conditions, dendritic Na(+) and NMDA spikes are the major determinants of neuronal output in vivo. We demonstrate that these dendritic spikes can be triggered by a surprisingly small number of strong synaptic inputs, in some cases even by single synapses. We predict that dendritic excitability allows the 1% strongest synaptic inputs of a neuron to control the tuning of its output. Active dendrites therefore allow smaller subcircuits consisting of only a few strongly connected neurons to achieve selectivity for specific sensory features. National Academy of Sciences 2021-07-27 2021-07-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8325157/ /pubmed/34301882 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2017339118 Text en Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Biological Sciences
Goetz, Lea
Roth, Arnd
Häusser, Michael
Active dendrites enable strong but sparse inputs to determine orientation selectivity
title Active dendrites enable strong but sparse inputs to determine orientation selectivity
title_full Active dendrites enable strong but sparse inputs to determine orientation selectivity
title_fullStr Active dendrites enable strong but sparse inputs to determine orientation selectivity
title_full_unstemmed Active dendrites enable strong but sparse inputs to determine orientation selectivity
title_short Active dendrites enable strong but sparse inputs to determine orientation selectivity
title_sort active dendrites enable strong but sparse inputs to determine orientation selectivity
topic Biological Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8325157/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34301882
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2017339118
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