Similarity in Neuronal Firing Regimes across Mammalian Species

• DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0230-16.2016
• Publication Date: 2016-05-25T17:34:09Z
• Authors: Yasuhiro Mochizuki; Tomokatsu Onaga; Hideaki Shimazaki; Takeaki Shimokawa; Yasuhiro Tsubo; Rie Kimura; Akiko Saiki; Yutaka Sakai; Yoshikazu Isomura; Shigeyoshi Fujisawa; Ken-ichi Shibata; Daichi Hirai; Takahiro Furuta; Takeshi Kaneko; Susumu Takahashi; Tomoaki Nakazono; Seiya Ishino; Yoshio Sakurai; Takashi Kitsukawa; Jong Won Lee; Hyunjung Lee; Min Whan Jung; Cecilia Babul; Pedro E. Maldonado; Kazutaka Takahashi; Fritzie I. Arce-M...; Callum F. Ross; Barry J. Sessle; Nicholas G. Hatso...; Thomas Brochier; Alexa Riehle; Paul Chorley; Sonja Grün; Hisao Nishijo; Satoe Ichihara-Ta...; Shintaro Funahashi; Keisetsu Shima; Hajime Mushiake; Yukako Yamane; Hiroshi Tamura; Ichiro Fujita; Naoko Inaba; Kenji Kawano; Sergei Kurkin; Kikuro Fukushima; Kiyoshi Kurata; Masato Taira; Ken-Ichiro Tsutsui; Tadashi Ogawa; Hidehiko Komatsu; Kowa Koida; Keisuke Toyama; Barry J. Richmond; Shigeru Shinomoto
• Keywords: Male; neuronal firing regime Significance Statement; interspecies similarity; [SDV.NEU.NB]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]/Neurobiology; Models, Neurological; Action Potentials; Neuronal firing regime; Sensitivity and Specificity; Interspecies similarity; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; neuronal firing pattern; Species Specificity; Biological Clocks; Animals; Computer Simulation; info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/610; Neuronal firing pattern; Neurons; 0303 health sciences; [SDV.NEU.NB] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]/Neurobiology; Brain; Reproducibility of Results; Haplorhini; firing irregularity/regularity; Rats; Cats; Female; Firing irregularity/regularity; Nerve Net

The architectonic subdivisions of the brain are believed to be functional modules, each processing parts of global functions. Previously, we showed that neurons in different regions operate in different firing regimes in monkeys. It is possible that firing regimes reflect differences in underlying information processing, and consequently the firing regimes in homologous regions across animal species might be similar. We analyzed neuronal spike trains recorded from behaving mice, rats, cats, and monkeys. The firing regularity differed systematically, with differences across regions in one species being greater than the differences in similar areas across species. Neuronal firing was consistently most regular in motor areas, nearly random in visual and prefrontal/medial prefrontal cortical areas, and bursting in the hippocampus in all animals examined. This suggests that firing regularity (or irregularity) plays a key role in neural computation in each functional subdivision, depending on the types of information being carried.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTBy analyzing neuronal spike trains recorded from mice, rats, cats, and monkeys, we found that different brain regions have intrinsically different firing regimes that are more similar in homologous areas across species than across areas in one species. Because different regions in the brain are specialized for different functions, the present finding suggests that the different activity regimes of neurons are important for supporting different functions, so that appropriate neuronal codes can be used for different modalities.