title: Optimal compensation for neuron loss.
abstract: The brain has an impressive ability to withstand neural damage. Diseases that kill neurons can go unnoticed for years, and incomplete brain lesions or silencing of neurons often fail to produce any behavioral effect. How does the brain compensate for such damage, and what are the limits of this compensation? We propose that neural circuits instantly compensate for neuron loss, thereby preserving their function as much as possible. We show that this compensation can explain changes in tuning curves induced by neuron silencing across a variety of systems, including the primary visual cortex. We find that compensatory mechanisms can be implemented through the dynamics of networks with a tight balance of excitation and inhibition, without requiring synaptic plasticity. The limits of this compensatory mechanism are reached when excitation and inhibition become unbalanced, thereby demarcating a recovery boundary, where signal representation fails and where diseases may become symptomatic.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France.|Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: David Gt
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Barrett
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Denève
authors.affiliation: Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Christian K
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1717-1562
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Machens
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009410:Nerve Degeneration; D009433:Neural Inhibition; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology
keywords: balanced networks; cercal system; efficient coding; neuron death; neuroscience; none; oculomotor; visual cortex