Taegon Chung

Abstract Previous studies tracking the relationship between manipulations of C. elegans neurons and the resulting behavioral changes have called for the development of a connectome-constrained neural network model that describes the cascade from neurons to behavior. However, the model using anatomical connectome weights directly did not achieve that.

eLife Assessment This study presents numerical results on a framework for understanding the dynamics of subthreshold waves in a network of electrical synapses modeled on the connectome data of the C elegans nematode. The strength of the evidence presented in favor of interference effects being a major component in subthreshold wave dynamics is inadequate and the approach is flawed.

Abstract Recent experimental studies showed that electrically coupled neural networks like in mammalian inferior olive nucleus generate synchronized rhythmic activity by the subthreshold sinusoidal-like oscillations of the membrane voltage. Understanding the basic mechanism and its implication of such phenomena in the nervous system bears fundamental importance and requires preemptively the connectome information of a given nervous system.