Hidden synaptic differences in a neural circuit underlie differential behavioral susceptibility to a neural injury

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Abstract

Individuals vary in their responses to stroke and trauma, hampering predictions of outcomes. One reason might be that neural circuits contain hidden variability that becomes relevant only when those individuals are challenged by injury. We found that in the mollusc, Tritonia diomedea, subtle differences between animals within the neural circuit underlying swimming behavior had no behavioral relevance under normal conditions but caused differential vulnerability of the behavior to a particular brain lesion. The extent of motor impairment correlated with the site of spike initiation in a specific neuron in the neural circuit, which was determined by the strength of an inhibitory synapse onto this neuron. Artificially increasing or decreasing this inhibitory synaptic conductance with dynamic clamp correspondingly altered the extent of motor impairment by lesion without affecting normal operation. The results suggest that neural circuit differences could serve as hidden phenotypes for predicting the behavioral outcome of neural damage.

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Akira Sakurai

Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, United States

For correspondence
akira@gsu.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Arianna N Tamvacakis

Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Paul S Katz

Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: The animals are housed in appropriately sized tanks equipped with temperature control system. They are routinely fed and cold-anesthetized prior to dissection.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.