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The Journal of Neuroscience, March 25, 2009, 29(12):3685-3694; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4500-08.2009

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Correlated Connectivity and the Distribution of Firing Rates in the Neocortex

Alexei A. Koulakov, Tomás Hromádka, and Anthony M. Zador

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724

Correspondence should be addressed to Alexei A. Koulakov, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724. Email: akula{at}cshl.edu

Two recent experimental observations pose a challenge to many cortical models. First, the activity in the auditory cortex is sparse, and firing rates can be described by a lognormal distribution. Second, the distribution of nonzero synaptic strengths between nearby cortical neurons can also be described by a lognormal distribution. Here we use a simple model of cortical activity to reconcile these observations. The model makes the experimentally testable prediction that synaptic efficacies onto a given cortical neuron are statistically correlated, i.e., it predicts that some neurons receive stronger synapses than other neurons. We propose a simple Hebb-like learning rule that gives rise to such correlations and yields both lognormal firing rates and synaptic efficacies. Our results represent a first step toward reconciling sparse activity and sparse connectivity in cortical networks.

Received Sept. 18, 2008; revised Jan. 5, 2009; accepted Jan. 12, 2009.

Correspondence should be addressed to Alexei A. Koulakov, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724. Email: akula{at}cshl.edu






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