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Intrinsic biophysical diversity decorrelates neuronal firing while increasing information content

2010; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 13; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/nn.2630

1546-1726

Krishnan Padmanabhan, Nathaniel N. Urban,

Neural dynamics and brain function

Neurons of the same molecular type can have substantial differences in intrinsic properties. Here the authors find that intrinsic diversity in the mitral cells of the mouse olfactory bulb decreases the firing correlations between neurons and increases the amount of information that can be transmitted by the neuronal population. Although examples of variation and diversity exist throughout the nervous system, their importance remains a source of debate. Even neurons of the same molecular type have notable intrinsic differences. Largely unknown, however, is the degree to which these differences impair or assist neural coding. We examined the outputs from a single type of neuron, the mitral cells of the mouse olfactory bulb, to identical stimuli and found that each cell's spiking response was dictated by its unique biophysical fingerprint. Using this intrinsic heterogeneity, diverse populations were able to code for twofold more information than their homogeneous counterparts. In addition, biophysical variability alone reduced pair-wise output spike correlations to low levels. Our results indicate that intrinsic neuronal diversity is important for neural coding and is not simply the result of biological imprecision.