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PMID: 15737062 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Highly nonrandom features of synaptic connectivity in local cortical circuits.

PLoS biology ·Vol. 3 ·No. 3 ·2005-03-00 ·Pages e68

Song S, Sjöström PJ, Reigl M, Nelson S, Chklovskii DB

Abstract

How different is local cortical circuitry from a random network? To answer this question, we probed synaptic connections with several hundred simultaneous quadruple whole-cell recordings from layer 5 pyramidal neurons in the rat visual cortex. Analysis of this dataset revealed several nonrandom features in synaptic connectivity. We confirmed previous reports that bidirectional connections are more common than expected in a random network. We found that several highly clustered three-neuron connectivity patterns are overrepresented, suggesting that connections tend to cluster together. We also analyzed synaptic connection strength as defined by the peak excitatory postsynaptic potential amplitude. We found that the distribution of synaptic connection strength differs significantly from the Poisson distribution and can be fitted by a lognormal distribution. Such a distribution has a heavier tail and implies that synaptic weight is concentrated among few synaptic connections. In addition, the strengths of synaptic connections sharing pre- or postsynaptic neurons are correlated, implying that strong connections are even more clustered than the weak ones. Therefore, the local cortical network structure can be viewed as a skeleton of stronger connections in a sea of weaker ones. Such a skeleton is likely to play an important role in network dynamics and should be investigated further.

MeSH Terms
Animals Cell Communication/physiology In Vitro Techniques Neural Pathways/physiology Neuronal Plasticity Neurons/physiology Rats Signal Transduction Synapses/physiology Visual Cortex/physiology
Authors & Affiliations
5 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Song Sen
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA.
Sjöström Per Jesper
Reigl Markus
Nelson Sacha
Chklovskii Dmitri B
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Article Info
Journal
PLoS biology
Abbr.
PLoS Biol
ISSN
1545-7885
DOI
10.1371/journal.pbio.0030068
Published
2005-03-00
Epub
2005-00-01
Pages
e68
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
101183755
PMCID
PMC1054880
Subset
IM
Grants
NEI NIH HHS · EY015273 · United States
NIMH NIH HHS · R01 MH066338 · United States
Wellcome Trust · United Kingdom
NEI NIH HHS · R03 EY015273 · United States
PHS HHS · 69838 · United States
Corrections
ErratumIn
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External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0030068 PMC Full Text View journal details
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