Functional network inference of the suprachiasmatic nucleus

Abstract

In mammals, circadian rhythms are controlled by a network of neurons in the brain. The structure of this network dictates organism-wide behavior and adaptation to the environment. We used a neurotoxin to desynchronize this circadian network and then used tools from information theory to determine which cells communicate to establish synchronization. Our results show that this functional network consists of two densely-connected cores, surrounded by sparsely connected shell regions. These findings represent the first time, to our knowledge, that this network has been examined at single cell resolution and show that the importance of these core network regions is independent of light input.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Apr 04, 2016
Source ID
10.1073/pnas.1521178113

Entities

People

  • Benjamin B. Bales
  • Daniel Granados-fuentes
  • Erik D. Herzog
  • Francis J. Doyle III
  • John H. Abel
  • Kirsten Meeker
  • Linda Petzold
  • Peter C. St. John
  • Thomas J. Wang

Organizations

  • Army Research Office
  • Harvard University
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Renewable Energy Laboratory
  • University of California
  • Washington University in St. Louis

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Circadian Sleep-Wake Regulation and Chronobiology
  • Enterprise Information Systems Architecture and Joint Command Capability Interoperability Support.
  • Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Neural Networks