Distinct Microcircuit Response to Comparable Input from a Full and Partial Projection Neuron Population

Neuronal inputs to microcircuits are often present as multiple copies of apparently equivalent neurons. Thus far, however, little is known regarding the relative influence on microcircuit output of activating all or only some copies of such an input. We are examining this issue in the crab (Cancer borealis) stomatogastric ganglion, where the gastric mill (chewing) microcircuit is activated by MCN1, a paired modulatory projection neuron. Both MCN1s contain the same cotransmitters, influence the same gastric mill circuit neurons, can drive the biphasic gastric mill rhythm, and are co-activated by all identified MCN1-activating pathways. Here, we determine whether the gastric mill circuit response is equivalent when stimulating one or both MCN1s under conditions where the pair are matched to collectively fire at the same overall rate and pattern as single MCN1 stimulation. The dual MCN1 stimulations elicited more consistently coordinated rhythms, and these rhythms exhibited longer phases and cycle periods. These different outcomes from single and dual MCN1 stimulation may have resulted from the relatively modest, and equivalent, firing rate of the gastric mill neuron LG during each matched set of stimulations. The LG neuron-mediated, ionotropic inhibition of the MCN1 axon terminals is the trigger for the transition from the retraction to protraction phase. This LG neuron influence on MCN1 was more effective during the dual stimulations, where each MCN1 firing rate was half that occurring during the matched single stimulations. Thus, equivalent individual- and co-activation of a class of modulatory projection neurons will not necessarily drive equivalent microcircuit output.