Figure 4.

Dynamic-clamp-mediated inhibitory synapses of sufficient strength transform tonic firing into rhythmic antiphasic bursting in a hybrid half-center oscillator. A, Both the silicon neuron (SiN) and the pharmacologically isolated heart interneuron (HN) fire tonically in the absence of artificial synapses (ḡ_Syn = 0 nS). B, Weak artificial synapses (small ḡ_Syn) result in sporadic lapses in activity but not rhythmic bursting. C, Strong artificial synapses (large ḡ_Syn) result in stable alternating rhythmic bursting. The dashed line in A-C indicates -50 mV. D, Results of four experiments in which ḡ_Syn was varied between 0 and 625 nS. Different symbols represent different experiments. The period of rhythmic oscillations settle to a value that remains relatively unchanged with additional variations of ḡ_Syn. The error bars indicate the SD of the period over n ≥ 8 cycles for each trial of the four individual experiments.