Open AccessAsynchronous Segregation of Cortical Circuits and Their Function: A Life-long Role for Synaptic Death
Author(s) -
Yoram Baram
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
aims neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 2373-7972
pISSN - 2373-8006
DOI - 10.3934/neuroscience.2017.2.87
Subject(s) - synapse , neuroscience , asynchronous communication , biological neural network , pruning , computer science , function (biology) , biology , telecommunications , agronomy , evolutionary biology
The functional role of synapse elimination has been debated since its discovery nearly three decades ago. Its widely perceived function in the removal of unnecessary and malfunctioning synapses in early life for the improvement of neural circuit performance has justified the term “synaptic pruning”. Yet, while recent experimental findings suggest the persistence of synaptic elimination into maturity and beyond, its cause and functionality have remained a mystery. Here we show that synapse elimination, caused by asynchronous neural firing, segregates individual neurons and neural circuits into interference-free synchronous isolation. Such segregation is shown to determine not only the circuit sizes, but also the circuit firing rate modes, fundamental to a large variety of cortical functions throughout life