Temporal Dynamics of Graded Synaptic Transmission in the Lobster Stomatogastric Ganglion (original) (raw)

Calcium sensor properties for activity-dependent homeostatic regulation of pyloric network rhythms in the lobster stomatogastric ganglion

2008

Welcome to CNS*2008! The international Computational Neuroscience meeting (CNS) has been a premier forum for presenting experimental and theoretical results exploring the biology of computation in the nervous system for the last 17 years. The meeting is organized by the Organization for Computational Neurosciences (OCNS), a non-profit organization governed by an international executive committee and board of directors. A separate program committee is responsible for the scientific program of the meeting. Participants at the meeting are from academia and industry. The meeting not only provides a venue for research presentation and discussion by senior scientists but actively offers a forum for promoting and supporting young scientists and students from around the world.

Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive Short-Term Dynamics of a Mixed Chemical and Electrical Synapse in a Rhythmic Network

2009

In the rhythmically active pyloric circuit of the spiny lobster, the synapse between the lateral pyloric (LP) neuron and pyloric constrictor (PY) neuron has an inhibitory depressing chemical and an electrical component. To understand how the dynamics of the LP3 PY synapse affect the relative firing times between these two neurons in an ongoing rhythm, we characterized the dynamics of the LP3 PY synapse after a pharmacological block of ongoing activity. When a train of voltage pulses was applied to the voltage-clamped LP neuron, the inhibitory chemical component of the postsynaptic potential (PSP) in the PY neuron rapidly depressed. Thus, after the first few pulses, the PSP was either hyperpolarizing or depolarizing, depending on the interpulse duration, with shorter interpulse durations producing depolarizing PSPs. To characterize the synaptic response during rhythmic activity, we played back prerecorded realistic waveforms in the voltage-clamped LP neuron. After an initial transien...

Short-Term Dynamics of a Mixed Chemical and Electrical Synapse in a Rhythmic Network

2003

In the rhythmically active pyloric circuit of the spiny lobster, the synapse between the lateral pyloric (LP) neuron and pyloric constrictor (PY) neuron has an inhibitory depressing chemical and an electrical component. To understand how the dynamics of the LP3 PY synapse affect the relative firing times between these two neurons in an ongoing rhythm, we characterized the dynamics of the LP3 PY synapse after a pharmacological block of ongoing activity. When a train of voltage pulses was applied to the voltage-clamped LP neuron, the inhibitory chemical component of the postsynaptic potential (PSP) in the PY neuron rapidly depressed. Thus, after the first few pulses, the PSP was either hyperpolarizing or depolarizing, depending on the interpulse duration, with shorter interpulse durations producing depolarizing PSPs. To characterize the synaptic response during rhythmic activity, we played back prerecorded realistic waveforms in the voltage-clamped LP neuron. After an initial transient, the resulting PSP in PY was always depolarizing, suggesting that in an ongoing rhythm, the electrical component of the synapse is dominant. However, our results indicate that the chemical component of the synapse acts to delay the peak time of the PSP and to reduce its amplitude, and that these effects become more important at slower cycle periods.

Frequency Control of a Slow Oscillatory Network by a Fast Rhythmic Input: Pyloric to Gastric Mill Interactions in the Crab Stomatogastric Nervous Systema

Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences, 1998

Abstract: The stomatogastic nervous system of the crab, Cancer borealis, produces a slow gastric mill rhythm and a fast pyloric rhythm. When the gastric mill rhythm is not active, stimulation of the modulatory commissural ganglion neuron 1 (MCN1) activates a gastric mill rhythm in which the lateral gastric (LG) neuron fires in antiphase with interneuron 1 (Int1). We present theoretical and experimental data that indicate that the period of the MCN1 activated gastric mill rhythm depends on the strength and time course of the MCN1 evoked slow excitatory synaptic potential (EPSP) in the LG neuron, and on the strength of inhibition of Int 1 by the pacemaker of the pyloric network. This work demonstrates a new mechansim by which a slow network oscillator can be controlled by a much faster oscillatory neuron or network and suggests that modulation of the slow oscillator can occur by direct actions on the neurons and synapses of the slow oscillator, or indirectly by actions on the fast oscillator and its synaptic connection with the slow oscillator.

Long-Term Neuromodulatory Regulation of a Motor Pattern-Generating Network: Maintenance of Synaptic Efficacy and Oscillatory Properties

Journal of Neurophysiology, 2002

Rhythm generation by the pyloric motor network in the stomatogastric ganglion (STG) of the spiny lobster requires permissive neuromodulatory inputs from other central ganglia. When these inputs to the STG are suppressed by cutting the single, mainly afferent stomatogastric nerve (stn), pyloric neurons cease to burst and the network falls silent. However, as shown previously, if such a decentralized quiescent ganglion is maintained in organ culture, pyloric network rhythmicity returns after 3–4 days and, although slower, is similar to the motor pattern expressed when the stn is intact. Here we use current- and voltage-clamp, primarily of identified pyloric dilator (PD) neurons, to investigate changes in synaptic and cellular properties that underlie this transition in network behavior. Although the efficacy of chemical synapses between pyloric neurons decreases significantly (by ≤50%) after STG decentralization, the fundamental change leading to rhythm recovery occurs in the voltage-...

Activation of a lobster motor rhythm-generating network by disinhibition of permissive modulatory inputs

Journal of neurophysiology, 1998

Rhythm generation by the gastric motor network in the stomatogastric ganglion (STG) of the lobster Homarus gammarus is controlled by modulatory projection neurons from rostral commissural ganglia (CoGs); blocking action potential conduction in these inputs to the STG of a stomatogastric nervous system in vitro rapidly renders the gastric network silent. However, exposure of the CoGs to low Ca2+ saline to block chemical synapses activates a spontaneously silent gastric network or enhances an ongoing gastric rhythm. A similar permissive effect was observed when picrotoxin was also superfused on these ganglia. We conclude that in the CoGs continuous synaptic inhibition is exerted on modulatory projection neuron(s) and that release from this inhibition allows strong activation of the gastric network.

Synaptic perturbation and entrainment of gastric mill rhythm of the spiny lobster

1984

Abstract The gastric mill rhythm of the lobster stomatogastric ganglion was perturbed with short trains of synaptic input from the inferior ventricular nerve (IVN) through fibers. The stimulus was delivered randomly for phase-response curve analysis or repetitively to examine entrainment. The responses depend on the phase of the stimulus in the endogenous rhythm. The stimulus may alter the internal coordination of the motor pattern.

Coordination of Fast and Slow Rhythmic Neuronal Circuits

Interactions among rhythmically active neuronal circuits that oscillate at different frequencies are important for generating complex behaviors, yet little is known about the underlying cellular mechanisms. We addressed this issue in the crab stomatogastric ganglion (STG), which contains two distinct but interacting circuits. These circuits generate the gastric mill rhythm (cycle period, ϳ10 sec) and the pyloric rhythm (cycle period, ϳ1 sec). When the identified modulatory projection neuron named modulatory commissural neuron 1 (MCN1) is activated, the gastric mill motor pattern is generated by interactions among MCN1 and two STG neurons [the lateral gastric (LG) neuron and interneuron 1]. We show that, during MCN1 stimulation, an identified synapse from the pyloric circuit onto the gastric mill circuit is pivotal for determining the gastric mill cycle period and the gastric-pyloric rhythm coordination. To examine the role of this intercircuit synapse, we replaced it with a computational equivalent via the dynamic-clamp technique. This enabled us to manipulate better the timing and strength of this synapse. We found this synapse to be necessary for production of the normal gastric mill cycle period. The synapse acts, during each LG neuron interburst, to boost rhythmically the influence of the modulatory input from MCN1 to LG and thereby to hasten LG neuron burst onset. The two rhythms become coordinated because LG burst onset occurs with a constant latency after the onset of the triggering pyloric input. These results indicate that intercircuit synapses can enable an oscillatory circuit to control the speed of a slower oscillatory circuit, as well as provide a mechanism for intercircuit coordination.

The frequency preference of neurons and synapses in a recurrent oscillatory network

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2014

A variety of neurons and synapses shows a maximal response at a preferred frequency, generally considered to be important in shaping network activity. We are interested in whether all neurons and synapses in a recurrent oscillatory network can have preferred frequencies and, if so, whether these frequencies are the same or correlated, and whether they influence the network activity. We address this question using identified neurons in the pyloric network of the crab Cancer borealis. Previous work has shown that the pyloric pacemaker neurons exhibit membrane potential resonance whose resonance frequency is correlated with the network frequency. The follower lateral pyloric (LP) neuron makes reciprocally inhibitory synapses with the pacemakers. We find that LP shows resonance at a higher frequency than the pacemakers and the network frequency falls between the two. We also find that the reciprocal synapses between the pacemakers and LP have preferred frequencies but at significantly l...