Selective gating of neuronal activity by intrinsic properties in distinct motor rhythms

This research has been supported by the Royal Society, Wellcome Trust (089319), and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/L0011X/1). I thank Drs. Steve Soffe, Alan Roberts, Erik Svensson, Hong-Yan Zhang, and Stefan Pulver for commenting on the manuscript.Many neural circuits show fast reconfiguration following altered sensory or modulatory inputs to generate stereotyped outputs. In the motor circuit of Xenopus tadpoles, I study how certain voltage-dependent ionic currents affect firing thresholds and contribute to circuit reconfiguration to generate two distinct motor patterns, swimming and struggling. Firing thresholds of excitatory interneurons [i.e., descending interneurons (dINs)] in the swimming central pattern generator are raised by depolarization due to the inactivation of Na+ currents. In contrast, the thresholds of other types of neurons active in swimming or struggling are raised by hyperpolarization from the activation of fast transient K+ currents. The firing thresholds are then compared with the excitatory synaptic drives, which are revealed by blocking action potentials intracellularly using QX314 during swimming and struggling. During swimming, transient K+ currents lower neuronal excitability and gate out neurons with weak excitation, whereas their inactivation by strong excitation in other neurons increases excitability and enables fast synaptic potentials to drive reliable firing. During struggling, continuous sensory inputs lead to high levels of network excitation. This allows the inactivation of Na+ currents and suppression of dIN activity while inactivating transient K+ currents, recruiting neurons that are not active in swimming. Therefore, differential expression of these currents between neuron types can explain why synaptic strength does not predict firing reliability/intensity during swimming and struggling. These data show that intrinsic properties can override fast synaptic potentials, mediate circuit reconfiguration, and contribute to motor–pattern switching.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Holographic Schwinger effect in the confining background with D-instanton

Using the gauge-gravity duality, we study the holographic Schwinger effect by performing the potential analysis on the confining D3- and D4-brane background with D-instantons then evaluate the pair production/decay rate by taking account into a fundamental string and a single flavor brane respectively. The two confining backgrounds with D-instantons are obtained from the black D(-1)-D3 and D0-D4 solution with a double Wick rotation. The total potential and pair production/decay rate in the Schwinger effect are calculated numerically by examining the NG action of a fundamental string and the DBI action of a single flavor brane all in the presence of an electric field. In both backgrounds our numerical calculation agrees with the critical electric field evaluated from the DBI action and shows the potential barrier is increased by the presence of the D-instantons, thus the production/decay rate is suppressed by the D-instantons. Our interpretation is that particles in the dual field theory could acquire an effective mass through the Chern-Simons interaction or the theta term due to the presence of D-instantons so that the pair production/decay rate in Schwinger effect is suppressed since it behaves as $e^{-m^{2}}$. Our conclusion is in agreement with the previous results obtained in the deconfined D(-1)-D3 background at zero temperature limit and from the approach of the flavor brane in the D0-D4 background. In this sense, this work may be also remarkable to study the phase transition in Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory and observable effects by the theta angle in QCD.Comment: 2 tables,9 figures,23 page

The interaction of glueball and heavy-light flavoured meson in holographic QCD

We construct the D4/D8 brane configuration in the Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto model by introducing a pair of heavy flavour brane with a heavy-light open string. The multiplets created by the heavy-light string acquire mass due to the finite separation of the heavy and light flavour branes thus they could be identified as the heavy-light meson fields in this model. On the other hand the glueball field is identified as the gravitational fluctuations carried by the close string in the bulk, so this model is able to describe the interaction of glueball and heavy-light meson through the open-close string interaction in gauge-gravity duality. We explicitly derive the effective action for the various glueballs and heavy-light mesons then numerically evaluate the associated coupling constants. Afterwards the decay widths of various glueballs to the lowest heavy-light meson, which is identified as $D^{0}$ meson, are calculated by using our effective action. This work extends the previous investigations of glueball in holographic QCD and it is also a further prediction of glueball-meson interaction.Comment: 33 pages, 2 figures, 2 table

Glueball-baryon interactions in holographic QCD

Studying the Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto model with type IIA string theory, we find the glueball-baryon interaction is predicted in this model. The glueball is identified as the 11D gravitational waves or graviton described by the M5-brane supergravity solution. Employing the relation of M-theory and type IIA string theory, glueball is also 10D gravitational perturbations which are the excited modes by close strings in the bulk of this model. On the other hand, baryon is identified as a D4-brane wrapped on $S^{4}$ which is named as baryon vertex, so the glueball-baryon interaction is nothing but the close string/baryon vertex interaction in this model. Since the baryon vertex could be equivalently treated as the instanton configurations on the flavor brane, we identify the glueball-baryon interaction as "graviton-instanton" interaction in order to describe it quantitatively by the quantum mechanical system for the collective modes of baryons. So the effective Hamiltonian can be obtained by considering the gravitational perturbations in the flavor brane action. With this Hamiltonian, the amplitudes and the selection rules of the glueball-baryon interaction can be analytically calculated in the strong coupling limit. We show our calculations explicitly in two characteristic situations which are "scalar and tensor glueball interacting with baryons". Although there is a long way to go, our work provides a holographic way to understand the interactions of baryons in hadronic physics and nuclear physics by the underlying string theory.Comment: 16 pages, adding the Appendix C and transition amplitude in this versio