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Similar network activity from disparate circuit parameters

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Abstract

It is often assumed that cellular and synaptic properties need to be regulated to specific values to allow a neuronal network to function properly. To determine how tightly neuronal properties and synaptic strengths need to be tuned to produce a given network output, we simulated more than 20 million versions of a three-cell model of the pyloric network of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion using different combinations of synapse strengths and neuron properties. We found that virtually indistinguishable network activity can arise from widely disparate sets of underlying mechanisms, suggesting that there could be considerable animal-to-animal variability in many of the parameters that control network activity, and that many different combinations of synaptic strengths and intrinsic membrane properties can be consistent with appropriate network performance.

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Figure 1: Biological pyloric rhythm and pyloric circuit architecture.
Figure 2: Cellular and synaptic components of the model networks.
Figure 3: Examples of network outputs.
Figure 4: Criteria for pyloric rhythms.
Figure 5: Similar model-network activity from different network properties.
Figure 6: Cellular and synaptic properties of pyloric networks.

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  • 15 May 2006

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Notes

  1. * NOTE: In the version of this article initially published online, the HTML version of the article did not pull up figure 5. This error has been corrected in the HTML version of the article.

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Acknowledgements

We thank L.F. Abbott for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. This work was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to E.M. (MH-46742), and by the Sloan-Swartz Center for Theoretical Neurobiology at Brandeis University.

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Correspondence to Astrid A Prinz.

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Prinz, A., Bucher, D. & Marder, E. Similar network activity from disparate circuit parameters. Nat Neurosci 7, 1345–1352 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1352

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