Thread by @dog_squared

Very happy to announce that my very first paper just came out in PNAS.
“Neuronal circuits overcome imbalance in excitation and inhibition by adjusting connection numbers”
pnas.org/content/118/12… #tweeprint below (1/7)

The paper is a result of a collaboration between @uni_tue @MPICybernetics and @WeizmannScience. A joint effort of @SelfOrgAnna, Moses lab, and Segal labs.
(2/7)

Hippocampal and cortical networks typically have about 20-30% of inhibitory neurons. But would they work with the other percentages? We looked at the activity of networks grown using a novel protocol to precisely control E/I ratios. (3/7)

The networks with practically any cellular E/I ratio were active and developed network bursting. Most features of the bursting activity were different only in cultures with extreme E/I ratios. Next, we wanted to see which mechanism do they use to main the bursting dynamics. (4/7)

Using patch clamp, we identified that the networks adjust the number of excitatory connections such that they stay proportional to the number of excitatory neurons. (5/7)

Finally, to link the changes in connections and bursting dynamics, we fit a network model using ABC. The results showed that the networks can preserve the bursting behavior by maintaining the total number of E and I inputs to each cell nearly balanced. (6/7)

Under the blockage of inhibition, the bursts became larger and less frequent, which was consistent with the behavior of the model. That also helped us to identify that the spike-frequency adaptation together with inhibition determines the network bursting. (7/7)