Title
Slow-gamma frequencies are optimally guarded against effects of neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic brain injuries.
Abstract
We introduce a computational model for the cellular level effects of firing rate filtering due to the major forms of neuronal injury, including demyelination and axonal swellings. Based upon experimental and computational observations, we posit simple phenomenological input/output rules describing spike train distortions and demonstrate that slow-gamma frequencies in the 38–41 Hz range emerge as the most robust to injury. Our signal-processing model allows us to derive firing rate filters at the cellular level for impaired neural activity with minimal assumptions. Specifically, we model eight experimentally observed spike train transformations by discrete-time filters, including those associated with increasing refractoriness and intermittent blockage. Continuous counterparts for the filters are also obtained by approximating neuronal firing rates from spike trains convolved with causal and Gaussian kernels. The proposed signal processing framework, which is robust to model parameter calibration, is an abstraction of the major cellular-level pathologies associated with neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic brain injuries that affect spike train propagation and impair neuronal network functionality. Our filters are well aligned with the spectrum of dynamic memory fields including working memory, visual consciousness, and other higher cognitive functions that operate in a frequency band that is - at a single cell level - optimally guarded against common types of pathological effects. In contrast, higher-frequency neural encoding, such as is observed with short-term memory, are susceptible to neurodegeneration and injury.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1007/s10827-019-00714-8
Journal of Computational Neuroscience
Keywords
Field
DocType
Slow-gamma, Neurodegenerative disease, Alzheimer, Traumatic brain injury, Focal axonal swelling, Demyelination, Spike-train robustness
Signal processing,Neuroscience,Spike train,Frequency band,Control theory,Working memory,Filter (signal processing),Biological neural network,Cognition,Mathematics,Encoding (memory)
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
47
1
0929-5313
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
0
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Pedro D Maia100.34
Ashish Raj216117.45
J. Nathan Kutz322547.13