A Gap Junction Circuit Enhances Processing of Coincident Mechanosensory Inputs

作者：Rabinowitch Ithai; Chatzigeorgiou Marios; Schafer William R^*

来源：Current Biology, 2013, 23(11): 963-967.

DOI：10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.030

Electrical synapses have been shown to be important for enabling and detecting neuronal synchrony in both vertebrates [1-4] and invertebrates [5, 6]. Hub-and-spoke circuits, in which a central hub neuron is electrically coupled to several input neurons, are an overrepresented motif in the C. elegans nervous system [7] and may represent a conserved functional unit. The functional relevance of this configuration has been demonstrated for circuits mediating aggregation behavior [8] and nose touch perception [9]. Modeling approaches have been useful for understanding structurally and dynamically more complex electrical circuits [10, 11]. Therefore, we formulated a simple analytical model with minimal assumptions to obtain insight into the properties of the hub-and-spoke microcircuit motif. A key prediction of the model is that an active input neuron should facilitate activity throughout the network, whereas an inactive input should suppress network activity through shunting; this prediction was supported by cell ablation and in vivo neuroimaging experiments in the C. elegans nose touch circuit. Thus, the hub-and-spoke architecture may implement an analog coincidence detector enabling distinct responses to distributed and localized patterns of sensory input.

• 出版日期2013-6-3