The electrical coupling confers to a network of interneurons the ability of transmitting excitatory inputs with high temporal precision.
The transmission of excitatory inputs by inhibitory networks of different sizes is investigated by means of numerical simulations. The interneurons are coupled by electrical and/or inhibitory synapses and each of them receives an excitatory pulse at a random time. The pulse times are extracted from a Gaussian distribution and each cell model is subject to an independent noisy current. The results described in this paper suggest that the presence of the electrical coupling promotes the transmission of the excitatory synaptic inputs on a time scale of a few milliseconds.
CNR - Istituto di Biofisica, via G. Moruzzi 1, 56124, Pisa, Italy. angelo.digarbo@pi.ibf.cnr.it
Angelo
A
Di Garbo
D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D017629:Gap Junctions / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007395:Interneurons / Q000502:physiology*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D019579:Neocortex / Q000502:physiology*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology; D016011:Normal Distribution; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors