Synaptic input variation increases firing rates at the expense of temporal precision. Left: GBC identification based on morphological features. Top: Low-magnification image of cochlear nucleus parasagittal slice containing a biocytin-filled GBC near the AN root (arrow). AVCN, anteroventral cochlear nucleus; PVCN, posteroventral cochlear nucleus; DCN, dorsal cochlear nucleus; AN, auditory nerve. Bottom: High-magnification image of the same GBC, displaying its characteristic round soma and short dendrites. Right: Schematic of the experimental paradigm: Acoustic stimuli (top) were processed by an auditory nerve model to generate spike trains for 10 AN fibers (ANF1-10). These spike trains were convolved with the EPSC waveform to generate conductance templates with varying synaptic strengths, ranging from “no variation” (blue) to “high variation” (orange), and injected into GBCs.
In the #cochlear nucleus, the size of inputs from #auditory #nerve fibers is variable. This study shows that variable input strength enhances rate coding at the expense of temporal precision, potentially creating diverse information streams for #sensory encoding @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3YCaLMU