HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 562/1/47    most recent jphysiol.2004.076448v1 Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Földy, C. Articles by Soltesz, I. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Földy, C. Articles by Soltesz, I. Related Collections Review articles

¹ Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

Abstract

Recent experimental and theoretical investigations have made considerable advances in three major areas relating to the structural basis of quantitative cortical microcircuit theory. The first concerns the nature of the cellular units, encompassing the increasingly precise identification and progressively more complete listing of the individual cellular species that constitute the various cortical networks. The second element addresses the problem of heterogeneity, including the demonstration of the importance of cell to cell variability within defined interneuronal populations and the application of the Shannon-Wiener diversity index for the quantitative assessment of the number and relative abundance of interneuronal species. The third component relates to the discovery of basic topological principles underlying the circuit wiring, revealing a surprising order in the architectural design of networks. These new advances deepen our understanding of the computational principles embedded in cortical microcircuits, and they also provide novel opportunities for building realistic models of mammalian cortical microcircuits.

(Received 29 September 2004; accepted after revision 19 October 2004; first published online 18 November 2004)
Corresponding author I. Soltesz: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of California, Irvine, CA 926971280, USA. Email: isoltesz{at}uci.edu

This report was presented at The Journal of Physiology Symposium in honour of the late Eberhard H. Buhl on Structure/Function Correlates in Neurons and Networks, Leeds, UK, 10 September 2004. It was commissioned by the Editorial Board and reflects the views of the authors.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. Parker and S. Bevan Modulation of Cellular and Synaptic Variability in the Lamprey Spinal Cord J Neurophysiol, January 1, 2007; 97(1): 44 - 56. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				F. E. N. LeBeau and M. A. Whittington Structure/function correlates of neuronal and network activity - an overview J. Physiol., January 1, 2005; 562(1): 1 - 2. [Full Text] [PDF]