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© 2014 Koumura et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

A dendritic spine is a very small structure (∼0.1 µm3) of a neuron that processes input timing information. Why are spines so small? Here, we provide functional reasons; the size of spines is optimal for information coding. Spines code input timing information by the probability of Ca2+ increases, which makes robust and sensitive information coding possible. We created a stochastic simulation model of input timing-dependent Ca2+ increases in a cerebellar Purkinje cell's spine. Spines used probability coding of Ca2+ increases rather than amplitude coding for input timing detection via stochastic facilitation by utilizing the small number of molecules in a spine volume, where information per volume appeared optimal. Probability coding of Ca2+ increases in a spine volume was more robust against input fluctuation and more sensitive to input numbers than amplitude coding of Ca2+ increases in a cell volume. Thus, stochasticity is a strategy by which neurons robustly and sensitively code information.

Details

Title
Stochasticity in Ca2+ Increase in Spines Enables Robust and Sensitive Information Coding
Author
Koumura, Takuya; Urakubo, Hidetoshi; Ohashi, Kaoru; Fujii, Masashi; Kuroda, Shinya
First page
e99040
Section
Research Article
Publication year
2014
Publication date
Jun 2014
Publisher
Public Library of Science
e-ISSN
19326203
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1536087349
Copyright
© 2014 Koumura et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.