Li Guanyu, LeFebre Ryan, Starman Alia, Chappell Patrick, Mugler Andrew, Sun Bo
Oregon State University, Department of Physics, Corvallis, 97331, USA.
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.
Res Sq. 2024 Apr 5:rs.3.rs-4006823. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4006823/v1.
To maintain normal functionality, it is necessary for a multicellular organism to generate robust responses to external temporal signals. However, the underlying mechanisms to coordinate the collective dynamics of cells remain poorly understood. Here we study the calcium activity of micropatterned biological neuron networks excited by periodic ATP stimuli. Combining quantitative experiments, physical and biological manipulation of cells, as well as mathematical modeling, we show that isolated cells in a network become more synchronized at longer period of stimuli through noise cancellation. However, slowly varying external signal also increases gap junction coupling between connected nodes in the network; and gap junction mediated communication may destroy network synchronization due to special nonlinear bifurcations exhibited by the excitable dynamics of neuronal cells. Based on our results, we propose that a biological neuron network supported by gap junctional communication encodes external temporal signals in its network dynamics. A sparely connected network approaches synchronization as input signal slows down, whereas a highly connected network enters dynamic frustration in the same situation.
为维持正常功能，多细胞生物有必要对外部时间信号产生强烈反应。然而，协调细胞集体动态的潜在机制仍知之甚少。在此，我们研究了由周期性ATP刺激激发的微图案化生物神经元网络的钙活性。结合定量实验、细胞的物理和生物操作以及数学建模，我们发现网络中的孤立细胞通过噪声消除在更长刺激周期下变得更加同步。然而，缓慢变化的外部信号也会增加网络中相连节点之间的间隙连接耦合；并且间隙连接介导的通信可能会由于神经元细胞兴奋动力学所表现出的特殊非线性分岔而破坏网络同步。基于我们的结果，我们提出由间隙连接通信支持的生物神经元网络在其网络动态中编码外部时间信号。一个稀疏连接的网络在输入信号减慢时趋近同步，而一个高度连接的网络在相同情况下会进入动态受挫状态。
