"While reading a book in a noisy café, how does your brain ‘gate in’ visual information while filtering out auditory stimuli? Here we propose a mechanism for such flexible routing of information flow in a complex brain network (pathway-specific gating), tested using a network model of pyramidal neurons and three classes of interneurons with connection probabilities constrained by data. We find that if inputs from different pathways cluster on a pyramidal neuron dendrite, a pathway can be gated-on by a disinhibitory circuit motif. ..."
Model Type: Synapse; Connectionist Network; Neuron or other electrically excitable cell; Dendrite
Cell Type(s): Neocortex L2/3 pyramidal GLU cell
Model Concept(s): Action Selection/Decision Making; Synaptic Plasticity; Information transfer; Rate-coding model neurons; Vision; Audition
Simulation Environment: Python (web link to model)
Implementer(s): Yang, Guangyu Robert
References:
Yang GR, Murray JD, Wang XJ. (2016). A dendritic disinhibitory circuit mechanism for pathway-specific gating. Nature communications. 7 [PubMed]