Communication in Neural Circuits: Tools, Opportunities, and Challenges.

ABSTRACT: Communication, the effective delivery of information, is fundamental to life across all scales and species. Nervous systems (by necessity) may be most specifically adapted among biological tissues for high rate and complexity of information transmitted, and thus, the properties of neural tissue and principles of its organization into circuits may illuminate capabilities and limitations of biological communication. Here, we consider recent developments in tools for studying neural circuits with particular attention to defining neuronal cell types by input and output information streams--i.e., by how they communicate. Complementing approaches that define cell types by virtue of genetic promoter/enhancer properties, this communication-based approach to defining cell types operationally by inp

SUBMITTER: Lerner TN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5725393 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature