Synaptic Failure Differentially Affects Pattern Formation in Heterogenous Networks
The communication of neurons is primarily maintained by synapses, which play a crucial role in the functioning of the nervous system. Therefore, synaptic failure may critically impair information processing in the brain and may underlie many neurodegenerative diseases. A number of studies have sugge...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2019-05-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Neural Circuits |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fncir.2019.00031/full |
| _version_ | 1811319228274311168 |
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| author | Maral Budak Michal Zochowski Michal Zochowski |
| author_facet | Maral Budak Michal Zochowski Michal Zochowski |
| author_sort | Maral Budak |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The communication of neurons is primarily maintained by synapses, which play a crucial role in the functioning of the nervous system. Therefore, synaptic failure may critically impair information processing in the brain and may underlie many neurodegenerative diseases. A number of studies have suggested that synaptic failure may preferentially target neurons with high connectivity (i.e., network hubs). As a result, the activity of these highly connected neurons can be significantly affected. It has been speculated that anesthetics regulate conscious state by affecting synaptic transmission at these network hubs and subsequently reducing overall coherence in the network activity. In addition, hubs in cortical networks are shown to be more vulnerable to amyloid deposition because of their higher activity within the network, causing decrease in coherence patterns and eventually Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Here, we investigate how synaptic failure can affect spatio-temporal dynamics of scale free networks, having a power law scaling of number of connections per neuron – a relatively few neurons (hubs) with a lot of emanating or incoming connections and many cells with low connectivity. We studied two types of synaptic failure: activity-independent and targeted, activity-dependent synaptic failure. We defined scale-free network structures based on the dominating direction of the connections at the hub neurons: incoming and outgoing. We found that the two structures have significantly different dynamical properties. We show that synaptic failure may not only lead to the loss of coherence but unintuitively also can facilitate its emergence. We show that this is because activity-dependent synaptic failure homogenizes the activity levels in the network creating a dynamical substrate for the observed coherence increase. Obtained results may lead to better understanding of changes in large-scale pattern formation during progression of neuro-degenerative diseases targeting synaptic transmission. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T12:39:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7613e0a172854ba4a311d76b1179fbf6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5110 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T12:39:03Z |
| publishDate | 2019-05-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Neural Circuits |
| spelling | doaj.art-7613e0a172854ba4a311d76b1179fbf62022-12-22T02:46:34ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neural Circuits1662-51102019-05-011310.3389/fncir.2019.00031419220Synaptic Failure Differentially Affects Pattern Formation in Heterogenous NetworksMaral Budak0Michal Zochowski1Michal Zochowski2Biophysics Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United StatesBiophysics Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United StatesDepartment of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United StatesThe communication of neurons is primarily maintained by synapses, which play a crucial role in the functioning of the nervous system. Therefore, synaptic failure may critically impair information processing in the brain and may underlie many neurodegenerative diseases. A number of studies have suggested that synaptic failure may preferentially target neurons with high connectivity (i.e., network hubs). As a result, the activity of these highly connected neurons can be significantly affected. It has been speculated that anesthetics regulate conscious state by affecting synaptic transmission at these network hubs and subsequently reducing overall coherence in the network activity. In addition, hubs in cortical networks are shown to be more vulnerable to amyloid deposition because of their higher activity within the network, causing decrease in coherence patterns and eventually Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Here, we investigate how synaptic failure can affect spatio-temporal dynamics of scale free networks, having a power law scaling of number of connections per neuron – a relatively few neurons (hubs) with a lot of emanating or incoming connections and many cells with low connectivity. We studied two types of synaptic failure: activity-independent and targeted, activity-dependent synaptic failure. We defined scale-free network structures based on the dominating direction of the connections at the hub neurons: incoming and outgoing. We found that the two structures have significantly different dynamical properties. We show that synaptic failure may not only lead to the loss of coherence but unintuitively also can facilitate its emergence. We show that this is because activity-dependent synaptic failure homogenizes the activity levels in the network creating a dynamical substrate for the observed coherence increase. Obtained results may lead to better understanding of changes in large-scale pattern formation during progression of neuro-degenerative diseases targeting synaptic transmission.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fncir.2019.00031/fullsynaptic transmission failurenetwork dynamicsnetwork synchronyspatio-temporal pattern formationscale-free networks |
| spellingShingle | Maral Budak Michal Zochowski Michal Zochowski Synaptic Failure Differentially Affects Pattern Formation in Heterogenous Networks Frontiers in Neural Circuits synaptic transmission failure network dynamics network synchrony spatio-temporal pattern formation scale-free networks |
| title | Synaptic Failure Differentially Affects Pattern Formation in Heterogenous Networks |
| title_full | Synaptic Failure Differentially Affects Pattern Formation in Heterogenous Networks |
| title_fullStr | Synaptic Failure Differentially Affects Pattern Formation in Heterogenous Networks |
| title_full_unstemmed | Synaptic Failure Differentially Affects Pattern Formation in Heterogenous Networks |
| title_short | Synaptic Failure Differentially Affects Pattern Formation in Heterogenous Networks |
| title_sort | synaptic failure differentially affects pattern formation in heterogenous networks |
| topic | synaptic transmission failure network dynamics network synchrony spatio-temporal pattern formation scale-free networks |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fncir.2019.00031/full |
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