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Parabolic avalanche scaling in the synchronization of cortical cell assemblies

Author

Listed:
  • Elliott Capek

    (National Institute of Mental Health)

  • Tiago L. Ribeiro

    (National Institute of Mental Health)

  • Patrick Kells

    (National Institute of Mental Health)

  • Keshav Srinivasan

    (National Institute of Mental Health
    University of Maryland)

  • Stephanie R. Miller

    (National Institute of Mental Health)

  • Elias Geist

    (National Institute of Mental Health)

  • Mitchell Victor

    (National Institute of Mental Health)

  • Ali Vakili

    (National Institute of Mental Health)

  • Sinisa Pajevic

    (National Institute of Mental Health)

  • Dante R. Chialvo

    (CEMSC3, Escuela de Ciencia y Tecnologia, UNSAM, San Martín)

  • Dietmar Plenz

    (National Institute of Mental Health)

Abstract

Neurons in the cerebral cortex fire coincident action potentials during ongoing activity and in response to sensory inputs. These synchronized cell assemblies are fundamental to cortex function, yet basic dynamical aspects of their size and duration are largely unknown. Using 2-photon imaging of neurons in the superficial cortex of awake mice, we show that synchronized cell assemblies organize as scale-invariant avalanches that quadratically grow with duration. The quadratic avalanche scaling was only found for correlated neurons, required temporal coarse-graining to compensate for spatial subsampling of the imaged cortex, and suggested cortical dynamics to be critical as demonstrated in simulations of balanced E/I-networks. The corresponding time course of an inverted parabola with exponent of χ = 2 described cortical avalanches of coincident firing for up to 5 s duration over an area of 1 mm2. These parabolic avalanches maximized temporal complexity in the ongoing activity of prefrontal and somatosensory cortex and in visual responses of primary visual cortex. Our results identify a scale-invariant temporal order in the synchronization of highly diverse cortical cell assemblies in the form of parabolic avalanches.

Suggested Citation

  • Elliott Capek & Tiago L. Ribeiro & Patrick Kells & Keshav Srinivasan & Stephanie R. Miller & Elias Geist & Mitchell Victor & Ali Vakili & Sinisa Pajevic & Dante R. Chialvo & Dietmar Plenz, 2023. "Parabolic avalanche scaling in the synchronization of cortical cell assemblies," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-37976-x
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37976-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guozhang Chen & Pulin Gong, 2019. "Computing by modulating spontaneous cortical activity patterns as a mechanism of active visual processing," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Kevin K. Sit & Michael J. Goard, 2020. "Distributed and retinotopically asymmetric processing of coherent motion in mouse visual cortex," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Markus Diesmann & Marc-Oliver Gewaltig & Ad Aertsen, 1999. "Stable propagation of synchronous spiking in cortical neural networks," Nature, Nature, vol. 402(6761), pages 529-533, December.
    4. Shan Yu & Andreas Klaus & Hongdian Yang & Dietmar Plenz, 2014. "Scale-Invariant Neuronal Avalanche Dynamics and the Cut-Off in Size Distributions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(6), pages 1-12, June.
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