A recently published report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined the interplay of excitation and inhibition associated with neural circuits. The report may be of importance for future research in autism or epilepsy treatment development.
Conducted by the University of Tübingen, the findings showed that cultured hippocampal networks remain relatively constant in a variety of precisely controlled cellular excitatory and inhibitory ratios, according to researchers.
“We show that cultured hippocampal networks maintain stable and robust dynamics in a wide range of precisely controlled cellular excitatory/inhibitory ratios. To uncover the mechanism underlying the stability of network dynamics, we use single-cell patch-clamp recordings,” researchers wrote in their PNAS report.
“We suggest that the networks adapt to altered excitation/inhibition compositions by adjusting the number of connections. Our modeling of the collective dynamics observed experimentally demonstrates that neuronal networks self-organize toward excitation/inhibition balance via changes in connectivity.”
Overall, the findings demonstrate the balance of excitation and inhibition in neural networks and how these new results may lead to the discovery of mechanisms related to conditions such as autism and epilepsy. Thus, resulting in the development of more effective drug treatments.
