On the Role of Sensory Cancellation and Corollary Discharge in Neural Coding and Behavior

Studies of cerebellum-like circuits in fish have demonstrated that synaptic plasticity shapes the motor corollary discharge responses of granule cells into highly-specific predictions of self- generated sensory input. However, the functional significance of such predictions, known as negative images, has not been directly tested. Here we provide evidence for improvements in neural coding and behavioral detection of prey-like stimuli due to negative images. In addition, we find that manipulating synaptic plasticity leads to specific changes in circuit output that disrupt neural coding and detection of prey-like stimuli. These results link synaptic plasticity, neural coding, and behavior and also provide a circuit-level account of how combining external sensory input with internally-generated predictions enhances sensory processing. In addition, the mammalian dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) integrates auditory nerve input with a diverse array of sensory and motor signals processed within circuity similar to the cerebellum. Yet how the DCN contributes to early auditory processing has been a longstanding puzzle. Using electrophysiological recordings in mice during licking behavior we show that DCN neurons are largely unaffected by self-generated sounds while remaining sensitive to external acoustic stimuli. Recordings in deafened mice, together with neural activity manipulations, indicate that self-generated sounds are cancelled by non-auditory signals conveyed by mossy fibers. In addition, DCN neurons exhibit gradual reductions in their responses to acoustic stimuli that are temporally correlated with licking. Together, these findings suggest that DCN may act as an adaptive filter for cancelling self-generated sounds. Adaptive filtering has been established previously for cerebellum-like sensory structures in fish suggesting a conserved function for such structures across vertebrates

Neural mechanisms for sensory prediction in a cerebellum-like structure

Any animal must be able to predict and cancel the sensory consequences of its own movements to avoid ambiguity in the origin of sensory input. Theoretical and human behavioral studies suggest that nervous systems contain internal models that use copies of outgoing motor signals along with incoming sensory feedback to predict the consequences of movements. Many studies propose the cerebellum as one possible site of such internal models. Yet whether such an internal model exists and how such an internal model might be implemented in neural circuits is largely speculative. Early work in cerebellum-like structures of mormyrid fish identified neural mechanisms of sensory predictions at the levels of synapses, cells, and circuits, and successfully linked those mechanisms to the systems-level function--the cancellation of electrosensory input due to the fish's own behavior. However, those early studies were restricted to predicting and cancelling the electrosensory consequences of relatively simple and rather specialized electromotor behavior. The research described here takes an in vivo electrophysiological approach to generalize the previous work in mormyrid fish to the more ubiquitous problem of predicting and cancelling the sensory consequences of movements. First, I demonstrate that neurons in the electrosensory lobe of weakly electric mormyrid fish generate predictions at the cellular level, termed negative images, about the sensory consequences of the fish's own movements based on ascending spinal corollary discharge signals. Second, I examine the interactions between corollary discharge and proprioceptive feedback under conditions that simulate real movements. Using experiments and modeling, I show that plasticity acting on random, nonlinear mixtures of corollary discharge and proprioceptive signals can account for key properties of negative images observed in vivo. Mossy fibers originating in the spinal cord carry randomly mixed, though linear, corollary discharge and proprioceptive signals, while properties of granule cells observed in vivo are consistent with a nonlinear re-coding of these signals. The conclusion of these studies is that both corollary discharge and proprioception, in combination with an associative neural network endowed with synaptic plasticity, provide a powerful and flexible basis for solving the ubiquitous problems of predicting the sensory consequences of movements

Spatial processing of conspecific signals in weakly electric fish: from sensory image to neural population coding

In this dissertation, I examine how an animal’s nervous system encodes spatially realistic conspecific signals in their environment and how the encoding mechanisms support behavioral sensitivity. I begin by modeling changes in the electrosensory signals exchanged by weakly electric fish in a social context. During this behavior, I estimate how the spatial structure of conspecific stimuli influences sensory responses at the electroreceptive periphery. I then quantify how space is represented in the hindbrain, specifically in the primary sensory area called the electrosensory lateral line lobe. I show that behavioral sensitivity is influenced by the heterogeneous properties of the pyramidal cell population. I further demonstrate that this heterogeneity serves to start segregating spatial and temporal information early in the sensory pathway. Lastly, I characterize the accuracy of spatial coding in this network and predict the role of network elements, such as correlated noise and feedback, in shaping the spatial information. My research provides a comprehensive understanding of spatial coding in the first stages of sensory processing in this system and allows us to better understand how network dynamics shape coding accuracy

25th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting: CNS-2016

Abstracts of the 25th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting: CNS-2016 Seogwipo City, Jeju-do, South Korea. 2–7 July 201

25th annual computational neuroscience meeting: CNS-2016

The same neuron may play different functional roles in the neural circuits to which it belongs. For example, neurons in the Tritonia pedal ganglia may participate in variable phases of the swim motor rhythms [1]. While such neuronal functional variability is likely to play a major role the delivery of the functionality of neural systems, it is difficult to study it in most nervous systems. We work on the pyloric rhythm network of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG) [2]. Typically network models of the STG treat neurons of the same functional type as a single model neuron (e.g. PD neurons), assuming the same conductance parameters for these neurons and implying their synchronous firing [3, 4]. However, simultaneous recording of PD neurons shows differences between the timings of spikes of these neurons. This may indicate functional variability of these neurons. Here we modelled separately the two PD neurons of the STG in a multi-neuron model of the pyloric network. Our neuron models comply with known correlations between conductance parameters of ionic currents. Our results reproduce the experimental finding of increasing spike time distance between spikes originating from the two model PD neurons during their synchronised burst phase. The PD neuron with the larger calcium conductance generates its spikes before the other PD neuron. Larger potassium conductance values in the follower neuron imply longer delays between spikes, see Fig. 17.Neuromodulators change the conductance parameters of neurons and maintain the ratios of these parameters [5]. Our results show that such changes may shift the individual contribution of two PD neurons to the PD-phase of the pyloric rhythm altering their functionality within this rhythm. Our work paves the way towards an accessible experimental and computational framework for the analysis of the mechanisms and impact of functional variability of neurons within the neural circuits to which they belong

Fish behavior and its use in the capture and culture of fishes

Fishery management, Behaviour, Food fish, Fish culture, Conferences

Ultrastructure of the cat inferior olive : an anatomical study using three new combination techniques

The present ultrastructural study focuses on two of the subnuclei of the IO: The medial accessory olive (MAO) and the principal olive (PO). These subnuclei, which are predominantly innervated by descending systems and by a recurrent pathway from the central cerebellar nuclei, may be involved in the preparation and execution of movements. Accurate timing obviously is essential in these processes. The morphological observations of this study will be discussed in relation to the electrophysiological properties of the olivary neurons (Chapter V). It will be attempted to show that the specific formation of the dendritic elements of these cells together with their synaptic input are well suited to serve as a timing devic