Sequences of events are ubiquitous in sensory, motor, and cognitive function. Key computational
operations, including pattern recognition, event prediction, and plasticity, involve neural
discrimination of spatio-temporal sequences. Here we show that synaptically-driven reaction
diffusion pathways on dendrites can perform sequence discrimination on behaviorally relevant
time-scales. We used abstract signaling models to show that selectivity arises when inputs at
successive locations are aligned with, and amplified by, propagating chemical waves triggered by
previous inputs. We incorporated biological detail using sequential synaptic input onto spines in
morphologically, electrically, and chemically detailed pyramidal neuronal models based on rat data.
Reference:
1 .
Bhalla US (2017) Synaptic input sequence discrimination on behavioral timescales mediated by reaction-diffusion chemistry in dendrites. Elife [PubMed]
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