Dynamical Origin for Winner-Take-All Competition in A Biological Network of The Hippocampal Dentate Gyrus

TL;DR

This paper investigates the dynamical mechanisms behind winner-take-all competition in the hippocampal dentate gyrus, revealing how external inputs and feedback inhibition lead to sparse activation of granule cells.

Contribution

It introduces a model explaining how E-I conductance ratios and feedback inhibition produce winner-take-all dynamics in hippocampal granule cell clusters.

Findings

WTA competition is driven by E-I conductance ratios exceeding a threshold.

Active GCs' firing rates correlate with their E-I conductance ratios.

Feedback inhibition from basket cells determines the sparse activation pattern.

Abstract

We consider a biological network of the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG). The DG is a pre-processor for pattern separation which facilitates pattern storage and retrieval in the CA3 area of the hippocampus. The main encoding cells in the DG are the granule cells (GCs) which receive the input from the entorhinal cortex (EC) and send their output to the CA3. The activation degree of GCs is so low (~ 5%). This sparsity has been thought to enhance the pattern separation. We investigate the dynamical origin for winner-take-all (WTA) competition which leads to sparse activation of the GCs. The whole GCs are grouped into lamellar clusters. In each GC cluster, there is one inhibitory (I) basket cell (BC) along with excitatory (E) GCs. There are three kinds of external inputs into the GCs; the direct excitatory EC input, the indirect inhibitory EC input, mediated by the HIPP (hilar perforant path-associated) cells, and the excitatory input from the hilar mossy cells (MCs). The firing activities of the GCs are determined via competition between the external E and I inputs. The E-I conductance ratio ${\cal{R}}_{\rm E-I}^{\rm (con)*}$ (given by the time average of the external E to I conductances) may represents well the degree of such external E-I input competition. GCs become active when their $\cal{R}_{\rm E-I}^{\rm (con)*}$ is larger than a threshold ${\cal{R}}_{th}^*$, and then the mean firing rates of the active GCs are strongly correlated with $\cal{R}_{\rm E-I}^{\rm (con)*}$. In each GC cluster, the feedback inhibition of the BC may select the winner GCs. GCs with larger $\cal{R}_{\rm E-I}^{\rm (con)*}$ than the threshold ${\cal{R}}_{th}^*$ survive, and they become winners; all the other GCs with smaller $\cal{R}_{\rm E-I}^{\rm (con)*}$ become silent. The WTA competition occurs via competition between the firing activity of the GCs and the feedback inhibition from the BC in each GC cluster.