@article {Basak157453, author = {Reshma Basak and Rishikesh Narayanan}, title = {Spatially dispersed synapses yield sharply-tuned place cell responses through dendritic spike initiation}, elocation-id = {157453}, year = {2017}, doi = {10.1101/157453}, publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory}, abstract = {The literature offers evidence for a critical role of spatially-clustered iso-feature synapses in eliciting dendritic spikes essential for sharp feature selectivity, with apparently contradictory evidence demonstrating spatial dispersion of iso-feature synapses. Here, we reconcile this apparent contradiction by demonstrating that the generation of dendritic spikes, the emergence of an excitatory ramp in somatic voltage responses and sharp tuning of place-cell responses are all attainable even when iso-feature synapses are randomly dispersed across the dendritic arbor. We found this tuning sharpness to be critically reliant on dendritic sodium and transient potassium channels and on N-methyl-D-asparate receptors. Importantly, we demonstrate that synaptic potentiation targeted to afferents from one specific place field is sufficient to effectuate place-field selectivity even when intrinsically disparate neurons received randomly dispersed afferents from multiple place-field locations. These conclusions proffer dispersed localization of iso-feature synapses as a strong candidate for achieving sharp feature selectivity in neurons across sensory-perceptual systems.}, URL = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/29/157453}, eprint = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/29/157453.full.pdf}, journal = {bioRxiv} }