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The influence of a single neuron on its network

The contribution of a single neuron to brain function might seem negligible. But a map of the influence of single neurons reveals a complex pattern that prevents redundancy and enables clear messaging.
  1. Ikuko T. Smith

    1. Ikuko T. Smith is in the Departments of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, and of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Neuroscience Research Institute, University of Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA.

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When a drop hits a pool of liquid, concentric cascading ripples form. Studying these ripples gives us information about the properties of the liquid and its molecules, such as their identity, mass, density or velocity. Writing in Nature, Chettih and Harvey1 take a similar approach to unravel the functional properties of the neural circuitry of the primary visual cortex in mouse brains: they trigger a small increase in the activity of a single neuron that causes a ripple of network activity in a pool of neurons.

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Nature 567, 320-321 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00687-9

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