Dynamics of a neuronal pacemaker in the weakly electric fish Apteronotus

The precise timing of neuronal activity is critical for normal brain function. In weakly electric fish, the medullary pacemaker network (PN) sets the timing for an oscillating electric organ discharge (EOD) used for electric sensing. This network is the most precise biological oscillator known, with sub-microsecond variation in oscillator period. The PN consists of two principle sets of neurons, pacemaker and relay cells, that are connected by gap junctions and normally fire in synchrony, one-to-one with each EOD cycle. However, the degree of gap junctional connectivity between these cells appears insufficient to provide the population averaging required for the observed temporal precision of the EOD. This has led to the hypothesis that individual cells themselves fire with high precision, but little is known about the oscillatory dynamics of these pacemaker cells. As a first step towards testing this hypothesis, we have developed a biophysical model of a pacemaker neuron action potential based on experimental recordings. We validated the model by comparing the changes in oscillatory dynamics produced by different experimental manipulations. Our results suggest that this relatively simple model can capture a large range of channel dynamics exhibited by pacemaker cells, and will thus provide a basis for future work on network synchrony and precision.