Work

Oscillations and Filtering Networks Support Flexible Routing of Information

Year: 2010

Type: article

Abstract: The mammalian brain exhibits profuse interregional connectivity. How information flow is rapidly and flexibly switched among connected areas remains poorly understood. Task-dependent changes in the power and interregion coherence of network oscillations suggest that such oscillations play a role in signal routing. We show that switching one of several convergent pathways from an asynchronous to an oscillatory state allows accurate selective transmission of population-coded information, which can be extracted even when other convergent pathways fire asynchronously at comparable rates. We further show that the band-pass filtering required to perform this information extraction can be implemented in a simple spiking network model with a single feed-forward interneuron layer. This constitutes a mechanism for flexible signal routing in neural circuits, which exploits sparsely synchronized network oscillations and temporal filtering by feed-forward inhibition.

Source: Neuron

DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.06.019

Authors: Thomas Akam, Dimitri M. Kullmann

Institutions: National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London

Language: English

Topic: Neural dynamics and brain function

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $10,400

Funder: Wellcome Trust