Stefano Luccioli - ISC-CNR Firenze #
Sensitivity to single neuron perturbations in developmentally
regulated networks #
It has recently been discovered that single neuron stimulation can 
impact
network dynamics in immature and adult neuronal circuits. Here we report 
a
novel mechanism which can explain in developing neuronal circuits, 
typically
composed of only excitatory cells, the peculiar role played by a few 
specific
neurons in promoting/arresting the population activity. For this 
purpose, we
consider a standard neuronal network model, with short-term synaptic
plasticity,whose population activity is characterized by bursting 
behavior.
The addition of developmentally regulated constraints on single neuron 
excitability and
connectivity leads to the emergence of functional hub neurons, whose
perturbation (through stimulation or deletion) is critical for the 
network
activity. Functional hubs form a clique, where a precise sequential 
activation
of the neurons is essential to ignite collective events without any need 
for a
specific topological architecture.