Evidence map›Paper›PMID 17480115›Full record

ArticlePLoS computational biology2007

Stochastic simulations on the reliability of action potential propagation in thin axons.

A Aldo Faisal, Simon B Laughlin

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS computational biology, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
64citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

64 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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  4. Review
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  10. Review
  11. Intermittent Failure of Spike Propagation in Primary Afferent Neurons during Tactile Stimulation.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2019
    Article
  12. Cortical reliability amid noise and chaos.Nature communications · 2019
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. The Role of Variability in Motor Learning.Annual review of neuroscience · 2017
    Review
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

A Aldo FaisalDepartment of Zoology, Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom. a.faisal@zoo.cam.ac.uk
Simon B Laughlin

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

It is generally assumed that axons use action potentials (APs) to transmit information fast and reliably to synapses. Yet, the reliability of transmission along fibers below 0.5 microm diameter, such as cortical and cerebellar axons, is unknown. Using detailed models of rodent cortical and squid axons and stochastic simulations, we show how conduction along such thin axons is affected by the probabilistic nature of voltage-gated ion channels (channel noise). We identify four distinct effects that corrupt propagating spike trains in thin axons: spikes were added, deleted, jittered, or split into groups depending upon the temporal pattern of spikes. Additional APs may appear spontaneously; however, APs in general seldom fail (<1%). Spike timing is jittered on the order of milliseconds over distances of millimeters, as conduction velocity fluctuates in two ways. First, variability in the number of Na channels opening in the early rising phase of the AP cause propagation speed to fluctuate gradually. Second, a novel mode of AP propagation (stochastic microsaltatory conduction), where the AP leaps ahead toward spontaneously formed clusters of open Na channels, produces random discrete jumps in spike time reliability. The combined effect of these two mechanisms depends on the pattern of spikes. Our results show that axonal variability is a general problem and should be taken into account when considering both neural coding and the reliability of synaptic transmission in densely connected cortical networks, where small synapses are typically innervated by thin axons. In contrast we find that thicker axons above 0.5 microm diameter are reliable.

Indexed as

Models, NeurologicalAction PotentialsAnimalsAxonsComputer SimulationData Interpretation, StatisticalDecapodiformesIon Channel GatingMembrane PotentialsMiceModels, StatisticalNeural ConductionRatsStochastic Processes

Identifiers

PMID17480115
PMCPMC1864994

What OpenQuestion holds

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Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.