Altered sensory filtering and coding properties by synaptic dynamics in the electric sense

  • Authors:

  • Krisztina Szalisznyó;André Longtin;Leonard Maler

  • Affiliations:

  • Physics Department, University of Ottawa, 150 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, Ont., Canada K1N 6N5 and Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ont., Can ...;Physics Department, University of Ottawa, 150 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, Ont., Canada K1N 6N5 and Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ont., Can ...;Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ont., Canada K1H 8M5

  • Venue:
  • Neurocomputing
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

This modeling study examines the short-term synaptic plasticity properties of the electrosensory lateral lobe (ELL) afferent pathway in the weakly electric fish, Apteronotus leptorhynchus. We studied the possible functional consequences of a simple phenomenological model of synaptic depression by taking into consideration the available in vivo and in vitro results [N. Berman, L. Maler, Inhibition evoked from primary afferents in the electrosensory lateral line lobe of the weakly electric fish (Apteronotus leptorhynchus), J. Neurophysiol. 80(6) (1998) 3173-3196; M.J. Chacron, B. Doiron, L. Maler, A. Longtin, J. Bastian, Non-classical receptive field mediates switch in a sensory neuron's frequency tuning, Nature 26(424) (2003) 1018-1022]. Filtering and coding properties were examined. We find that simple short-term phenomenological synaptic depression can change steady-state filtering properties and explain how the known physiological constraints influence the coding capabilities of the ELL pyramidal cells via dynamic synaptic transmission.