Information transmission in cercal giant interneurons is unaffected by axonal conduction noise.
What are the fundamental constraints on the precision and accuracy with which nervous systems can process information? One constraint must reflect the intrinsic "noisiness" of the mechanisms that transmit information between nerve cells. Most neurons transmit information through the probab...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2012-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3257269?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1818941320643739648 |
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| author | Zane N Aldworth John A Bender John P Miller |
| author_facet | Zane N Aldworth John A Bender John P Miller |
| author_sort | Zane N Aldworth |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | What are the fundamental constraints on the precision and accuracy with which nervous systems can process information? One constraint must reflect the intrinsic "noisiness" of the mechanisms that transmit information between nerve cells. Most neurons transmit information through the probabilistic generation and propagation of spikes along axons, and recent modeling studies suggest that noise from spike propagation might pose a significant constraint on the rate at which information could be transmitted between neurons. However, the magnitude and functional significance of this noise source in actual cells remains poorly understood. We measured variability in conduction time along the axons of identified neurons in the cercal sensory system of the cricket Acheta domesticus, and used information theory to calculate the effects of this variability on sensory coding. We found that the variability in spike propagation speed is not large enough to constrain the accuracy of neural encoding in this system. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T06:53:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8e4d171ad6244d6ea5420a33ad312910 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T06:53:40Z |
| publishDate | 2012-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-8e4d171ad6244d6ea5420a33ad3129102022-12-21T19:49:27ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032012-01-0171e3011510.1371/journal.pone.0030115Information transmission in cercal giant interneurons is unaffected by axonal conduction noise.Zane N AldworthJohn A BenderJohn P MillerWhat are the fundamental constraints on the precision and accuracy with which nervous systems can process information? One constraint must reflect the intrinsic "noisiness" of the mechanisms that transmit information between nerve cells. Most neurons transmit information through the probabilistic generation and propagation of spikes along axons, and recent modeling studies suggest that noise from spike propagation might pose a significant constraint on the rate at which information could be transmitted between neurons. However, the magnitude and functional significance of this noise source in actual cells remains poorly understood. We measured variability in conduction time along the axons of identified neurons in the cercal sensory system of the cricket Acheta domesticus, and used information theory to calculate the effects of this variability on sensory coding. We found that the variability in spike propagation speed is not large enough to constrain the accuracy of neural encoding in this system.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3257269?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Zane N Aldworth John A Bender John P Miller Information transmission in cercal giant interneurons is unaffected by axonal conduction noise. PLoS ONE |
| title | Information transmission in cercal giant interneurons is unaffected by axonal conduction noise. |
| title_full | Information transmission in cercal giant interneurons is unaffected by axonal conduction noise. |
| title_fullStr | Information transmission in cercal giant interneurons is unaffected by axonal conduction noise. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Information transmission in cercal giant interneurons is unaffected by axonal conduction noise. |
| title_short | Information transmission in cercal giant interneurons is unaffected by axonal conduction noise. |
| title_sort | information transmission in cercal giant interneurons is unaffected by axonal conduction noise |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3257269?pdf=render |
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