Fig. 4. Simulated microcircuit response units.
a Sagittal and coronal sections of the response unit show the normalized membrane potential (Vm) of neurons in response to the activation of 50 contiguous glomeruli (10 pulses at 50 Hz). Each dot corresponds to a granule cell of the unit. In both sagittal and coronal sections, the maps show variable intensity of responses from cell to cell and a remarkable increase of activity after turning inhibition OFF. The E–I balance maps show distinct areas of prevailing excitation or inhibition. b Examples of simulated voltage traces related to granule cells from different positions in the microcircuit unit. Note that when inhibition is ON, granule cells show a variety of firing patterns; when inhibition is OFF, the pattern is more stereotyped. c E–I balance maps corresponding to simulations in a. The box-and-whisker plots show that activation of the E and I areas is similar in sagittal and coronal sections of the 3D activity maps (n = 10 independent simulations of sagittal sections and n = 10 independent simulations of coronal sections; p = 0.75 and p = 0.57, respectively; unpaired t-test).