Cellular coupling determines scale-invariant behavior of neurons in suprachiasmatic nucleus. (1st December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhou, J.; Gu, X.; Gu, C.; Yang, H.; Weng, T.; Rohling, J.H.T.
• Is Part Of: Chronobiology international. Volume 37:Number 12(2020)
• Page Start: 1669
• Page End: 1676
• Publication Date: 2020-12-01
• Subjects: Circadian rhythm -- diffusion entropy -- scale-invariance -- single-cell -- suprachiasmatic nucleus; Chronobiology -- Periodicals; Biological rhythms -- Periodicals; Circadian rhythms -- Periodicals; 571.77
• DOI: 10.1080/07420528.2020.1825469
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0742-0528

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The main clock in mammals, located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of hypothalamus, not only regulates the daily rhythms in physiological and behavioral activities, but also plays a key role as one of the control nodes in the brain regulating behavioral activity. As such, it induces scale-invariance in the temporal patterns of behavioral activity and of multi-unit neural activity of the SCN network. In particular, the scale-invariant patterns maintain across multiple time scales from 3 minutes to 10 hours, characterized by a scaling exponent around 1. Thus far, no study found the origin of the scale-invariance of the SCN network. Using the method of correlation-dependent balance estimation of diffusion entropy (cBEDE), we found that scale-invariance also exists in the individual neurons of the SCN, and the scale invariance properties are significantly increased when the neurons are coupled in a network of neurons. Improved scale invariance in the single neurons is, therefore, imposed by the emergent network properties of the SCN network. Our findings show that the scale-invariance of the SCN can already be found at the level of the individual neurons and that the application of a scale invariance measure, such as cBEDE, can help in determining the network status of the SCN.