The propagation of single impulses at axonal branch points and widenings was computed numerically. Previous computational studies have held that an action potential propagates across an unmyelinated axonal branch point with diameter-dependent lowered likelihood, such that increasingly complex arborizations could eliminate propagating information. This result is counter-intuitive to the principle of information divergence within neuronal circuits. The present study re-examined this result. The boundary conditions at a branch point were extracted from a physical analog circuit with actual branches. The main results were that impulse propagation was reliable past branch points and widenings, and that conduction velocity changed spatially as a function of fiber geometrical inhomogeneity.

1. The purpose of this work was to determine whether computed temporally coded axonal information generated by Poisson process stimulation were modified during long-distance propagation, as originally suggested by S. A. George. Propagated impulses were computed with the use of the Hodgkin-Huxley equations and cable theory to simulate excitation and current spread in 100-microns-diam unmyelinated axons, whose total length was 8.1 cm (25 lambda) or 101.4 cm (312.5 lambda). Differential equations were solved numerically, with the use of trapezoidal integration over small, constant electrotonic and temporal steps (0.125 lambda and 1.0 microsecond, respectively). 2. Using dual-pulse stimulation, we confirmed that for interstimulus intervals between 5 and 11 ms, the conduction velocity of the second of a short-interval pair of impulses was slower than that of the first impulse. Further, with sufficiently long propagation distance, the second impulse's conduction velocity increased steadily and eventually approached that of the first impulse. This effect caused a spatially varying interspike interval: as propagation proceeded, the interspike interval increased and eventually approached stabilization. 3. With Poisson stimulation, the peak amplitude of propagating action potentials varied with interspike interval durations between 5 and 11 ms. Such amplitude attenuation was caused by the incomplete relaxation of parameters n (macroscopic K-conductance activation) and h (macroscopic Na-conductance inactivation) during the interspike period. 4. The stochastic properties of the impulse train became less Poisson-like with propagation distance. In cases of propagation over 99.4 cm, the impulse trains developed marked periodicities in Interevent Interval Distribution and Expectation Density function because of the axially modulated transformation of interspike intervals. 5. Despite these changes in impulse train parameters, the arithmetic value of the mean interspike interval did not change as a function of propagation distance. This work showed that in theory, whereas the pattern of Poisson-like impulse codes was modified during long-distance propagation, their mean rate was conserved.

Rat cerebral astrocytes from confluent primary cultures were grown for two weeks in medium made hyperosmotic with additional NaCl. At the time the cells were harvested (four weeks in culture), the medium osmolality of experimental cultures was approximately 600 mOsm. Amino acid, protein, and potassium contents and the cell volume were measured. Compared to cells maintained in control medium (approximately 300 mOsm), cells grown in hyperosmotic conditions had over two times the content of taurine and five times the content of glutamine. Alanine, aspartate, glutamate, glycine, and tyrosine contents also were elevated in these hyperosmotic-treated cells, while asparagine contents were unchanged relative to control cells. Cell volume and potassium content were decreased to approximately 50% of control levels by the hyperosmotic treatment while total protein content per cell was unchanged relative to cells from control cultures. Seven min after hyperosmotic-exposed cells were rapidly diluted into PBS with osmolality equal to about 330 mOsm, cell contents of alanine, asparagine, glutamine, glutamate, glycine, taurine, and tyrosine fell toward control levels. The data indicate that significant alterations in intracellular osmolytes occur in astrocytes adapted to hyperosmotic conditions. We suggest that a loss of intracellular potassium is at least partially compensated by accumulation of taurine, glutamine, and perhaps other amino acids acting as intracellular osmolytes.

No abstract

Impulse trains were recorded from the parent axon of the cat G1 hair afferent unit. Separate random (Poisson-like) trains of mechanical stimuli were applied to two coinnervated receptive field hairs individually or concurrently. The objective was to determine whether the parent axonal impulse train elicited by dual-hair stimulation was due to a temporal combining ("mixing"; Fukami, 1980) of the impulse trains elicited in the parent axons by the same stimulation to each hair alone. Both impulse rates and patterns were assessed. During single-hair random stimulation, impulse trains differed from stimulus trains, having lower mean rates and short-interval doublets. During dual-hair random stimulation, mean impulse frequencies were on average 36% less than those predicted for mixing. There were no correlations between stimulus amplitude and departures from mixing. As a further test of the mixing hypothesis, the two single-hair-elicited impulse trains were temporally merged (i.e., superimposed to form one impulse train). Such merged impulse trains were compared with the corresponding dual-hair-elicited impulse train. Dual-hair-elicited frequencies were typically less than those of the merged trains, despite the use of an absolute-refractory-period criterion during merging. The impulse patterns elicited by dual-hair stimulation usually differed from the merged-train patterns. Temporal coupling between stimuli and impulses was either variable or absent during single-hair random stimulation; such coupling was altered during dual-hair random stimulation. In summary, this work showed that the dual-hair responses could not be predicted from the single-hair responses. Limitations of the mixing hypothesis and possible biophysical mechanisms in the axonal arborization are discussed. The results are consistent with a general hypothesis of analog processing within the arborization of the parent axon.