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High bandwidth synaptic communication and frequency tracking in human neocortex.

Guilherme Testa-Silva1, Matthijs B Verhoog2, Daniele Linaro3

  • 1Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, CNCR, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

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This summary is machine-generated.

Human brain synapses transfer information much faster than rodent synapses, with higher temporal resolution and bandwidth. This finding challenges previous views on synaptic information processing in the human brain.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Synaptic Plasticity
  • Information Theory

Background:

  • Neuronal firing and synaptic transmission are fundamental to brain information processing.
  • The comparative efficiency of information transfer between adult human and rodent synapses remains largely unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate and compare the information transfer efficiency of synapses in adult human versus rodent cortical neurons.
  • To explore the dynamical properties of use-dependent plasticity in human and rodent synapses.

Main Methods:

  • Recorded from connected pyramidal neurons in acute slices of adult human and mouse temporal cortex.
  • Probed use-dependent synaptic plasticity and recovery dynamics.
  • Utilized information theory to quantify synaptic information transfer rates.

Main Results:

  • Human synapses exhibited purely depressing characteristics with 3-4 times faster recovery from depression than rodent synapses.
  • Information transfer in human synapses was 4-9 times higher than in rodents, extending into beta and gamma frequencies.
  • Human neurons demonstrated tracking of synaptic inputs at a wider bandwidth and phase-locked firing up to 1,000 cycles/s.

Conclusions:

  • Fast-recovering human synapses efficiently transfer substantial information during spike trains, contrary to prior assumptions about rodent depressing synapses.
  • Adult human cortical microcircuits exhibit a wider information relay bandwidth compared to rodent microcircuits.
  • Human pyramidal neurons are adept at encoding high synaptic information content.