Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:20:06 BST CiteULike: apeyrache's Melamed http://www.citeulike.org/user/apeyrache/author/Melamed CiteULike.org en-gb Copyright © 2004-2008 citeulike.org http://www.citeulike.org/user/apeyrache/article/2810143 <i>Journal of computational neuroscience (16 May 2008)</i><br /><br />The synchronous oscillatory activity characterizing many neurons in a network is often considered to be a mechanism for representing, binding, conveying, and organizing information. A number of models have been proposed to explain high-frequency oscillations, but the mechanisms that underlie slow oscillations are still unclear. Here, we show by means of analytical solutions and simulations that facilitating excitatory (E (f)) synapses onto interneurons in a neural network play a fundamental role, not only in shaping the frequency of slow oscillations, but also in determining the form of the up and down states observed in electrophysiological measurements. Short time constants and strong E (f) synapse-connectivity were found to induce rapid alternations between up and down states, whereas long time constants and weak E (f) synapse connectivity prolonged the time between up states and increased the up state duration. These results suggest a novel role for facilitating excitatory synapses onto interneurons in controlling the form and frequency of slow oscillations in neuronal circuits. Slow oscillations in neural networks with facilitating synapses. Ofer Melamed Omri Barak Gilad Silberberg Henry Markram Misha Tsodyks doi:10.1007/s10827-008-0080-z Journal of computational neuroscience (16 May 2008) 2008-05-18T15:13:11-00:00 2008 Journal of computational neuroscience 0929-5313 slow http://www.citeulike.org/user/apeyrache/article/2767003 <i>Trends in Neurosciences, Vol. 27, No. 1. (January 2004), pp. 11-14.</i><br /><br />A major challenge to understanding behavior is how the nervous system allows the learning of behavioral sequences that can occur over arbitrary timescales, ranging from milliseconds up to seconds, using a fixed millisecond learning rule. This article describes some potential solutions, and then focuses on a study by Mehta et al. that could contribute towards solving this puzzle. They have discovered that an experience-dependent asymmetric shape of hippocampal receptive fields combined with oscillatory inhibition can serve to map behavioral sequences on a fixed timescale. Coding and learning of behavioral sequences Ofer Melamed Wulfram Gerstner Wolfgang Maass Misha Tsodyks Henry Markram doi:10.1016/j.tins.2003.10.014 Trends in Neurosciences, Vol. 27, No. 1. (January 2004), pp. 11-14. 2008-05-07T16:58:00-00:00 2004 Trends in Neurosciences 27 1 11 14 learning sequences stdp