Synaptic depression enables neuronal gain control.

ABSTRACT: To act as computational devices, neurons must perform mathematical operations as they transform synaptic and modulatory input into output firing rate. Experiments and theory indicate that neuronal firing typically represents the sum of synaptic inputs, an additive operation, but multiplication of inputs is essential for many computations. Multiplication by a constant produces a change in the slope, or gain, of the input-output relationship, amplifying or scaling down the sensitivity of the neuron to changes in its input. Such gain modulation occurs in vivo, during contrast invariance of orientation tuning, attentional scaling, translation-invariant object recognition, auditory processing and coordinate transformations. Moreover, theoretical studies highlight the necessity of gain modulatio

SUBMITTER: Rothman JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2689940 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature