Lognormal firing rate distribution reveals prominent fluctuation-driven regime in spinal motor networks

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Cite as: eLife 2016;5:e18805 doi: 10.7554/eLife.18805

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Abstract

When spinal circuits generate rhythmic movements it is important that the neuronal activity remains within stable bounds to avoid saturation and to preserve responsiveness. Here, we simultaneously record from hundreds of neurons in lumbar spinal circuits of turtles and establish the neuronal fraction that operates within either a 'mean-driven' or a 'fluctuation-driven' regime. Fluctuation-driven neurons have a 'supralinear' input-output curve, which enhances sensitivity, whereas the mean-driven regime reduces sensitivity. We find a rich diversity of firing rates across the neuronal population as reflected in a lognormal distribution and demonstrate that half of the neurons spend at least 50% of the time in the 'fluctuation-driven' regime regardless of behavior. Because of the disparity in input-output properties for these two regimes, this fraction may reflect a fine trade-off between stability and sensitivity in order to maintain flexibility across behaviors.

Article and author information

Author details

Peter C Petersen

Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Rune W Berg

Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

For correspondence
runeb@sund.ku.dk

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

0000-0001-6376-9368

Funding

Sundhed og Sygdom, Det Frie Forskningsråd

Rune W Berg

Novo Nordisk

Rune W Berg

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: The surgical procedures comply with Danish legislation and were approved by the controlling body under the Ministry of Justice.

Reviewing Editor

Jan-Marino Ramirez, Reviewing Editor, Seattle Children's Research Institute and University of Washington, United States

Publication history

Received: June 14, 2016
Accepted: October 25, 2016
Accepted Manuscript published: October 26, 2016 (version 1)
Version of Record published: December 2, 2016 (version 2)
Version of Record updated: August 14, 2017 (version 3)

Copyright

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.