Maskery Susan M, Buettner Helen M, Shinbrot Troy
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA.
BMC Neurosci. 2004 Jul 8;5:22. doi: 10.1186/1471-2202-5-22.
Growth cone migratory patterns show evidence of both deterministic and stochastic search modes.
We quantitatively examine how these two different migration modes affect the growth cone's pathfinding response, by simulating growth cone contact with a repulsive cue and measuring the resultant turn angle. We develop a dimensionless number, we call the determinism ratio Psi, to define the ratio of deterministic to stochastic influences driving the growth cone's migration in response to an external guidance cue. We find that the growth cone can exhibit three distinct types of turning behaviors depending on the magnitude of Psi.
We conclude, within the context of these in silico studies, that only when deterministic and stochastic migration factors are in balance (i.e. Psi ~ 1) can the growth cone respond constructively to guidance cues.
生长锥迁移模式显示出既有确定性搜索模式又有随机搜索模式的证据。
我们通过模拟生长锥与排斥性线索的接触并测量由此产生的转向角度，定量研究了这两种不同的迁移模式如何影响生长锥的路径寻找反应。我们开发了一个无量纲数，称为确定性比率Ψ，以定义驱动生长锥响应外部引导线索进行迁移的确定性影响与随机影响的比率。我们发现，根据Ψ的大小，生长锥可以表现出三种不同类型的转向行为。
我们在这些计算机模拟研究的背景下得出结论，只有当确定性和随机迁移因素达到平衡时（即Ψ~1），生长锥才能对引导线索做出建设性反应。
