The robustness of phase-locking in neurons with dendro-dendritic electrical coupling

Area of Science:

• Computational Neuroscience
• Neuroscience
• Biophysics

Background:

• Electrically coupled neurons form networks exhibiting synchronized activity.
• Dendritic filtering properties significantly influence signal integration and neuronal output.
• Understanding phase-locking in neural systems is crucial for deciphering information processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how dendritic filtering affects the stability and robustness of phase-locked states in coupled neurons.
• To analyze the impact of electrotonic length and dendritic diameter on neuronal phase-locking.
• To explore the consequences of coupling location on synchronous and anti-phase states.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing the theory of weakly coupled oscillators.
• Analytically deriving dendritic coupling filtering properties.
• Simulating electrically coupled ball-and-stick neuron models with passive dendrites.

Main Results:

• Repeated stability exchanges between synchronous and anti-phase states occur with distal coupling when coupling conductance (gc) is fixed.
• Robustness of phase-locked states diminishes rapidly as coupling moves away from somata with fixed gc.
• Using a fixed coupling coefficient (CC) limits coupling location but maintains robustness, with few stability exchanges observed.

Conclusions:

• Dendritic filtering critically modulates phase-locking dynamics in coupled neurons.
• Coupling location significantly impacts stability and robustness, with distal locations reducing robustness under fixed gc.
• Multiple stability exchanges with changing coupling location are unlikely in real neural systems, especially under realistic CC constraints.