Intrinsic morphological diversity of thick-tufted layer 5 pyramidal neurons ensures robust and invariant properties of in silico synaptic connections

摘要

Non-technical summaryPyramidal neurons are output neurons of the neocortex. The thick-tufted layer 5 (TTL5) pyramidal neurons are one of the most extensively studied neocortical cell types and are characterized by an exquisite morphological structure. Despite their characteristic morphology, TTL5 neurons in the neocortical microcircuit display an intrinsic diversity that renders each neuron morphologically unique. In order to investigate the functional significance of this intrinsic morphological diversity, we reconstructed networks of TTL5 neurons through a detailed computer model and compared the properties of modelled synaptic connections against experimental data. We found that the average synaptic properties of modelled connections between TTL5 neurons closely matched experimental observations and remained unaltered by changes to several parameters at the local network level. These results show that the intrinsic morphological diversity of TTL5 neurons is a mechanism to ensure that the average synaptic properties are robust to changes at the local network level.