Predicting the response of striatal spiny neurons to sinusoidal input

Spike timing effects of small amplitude sinusoidal currents were measured in mouse striatal spiny neurons firing repetitively. Spike timing reliability varied with the stimulus frequency. For frequencies near the cell's firing rate, the cells altered firing rate to match the stimulus and became phase-locked to it. The stimulus phase of firing during lock depended on the stimulus frequency relative to the cell's unperturbed firing rate. Interspike intervals during sinusoidal stimulation were predicted using an iterative map constructed from the cells' phase resetting curve. Variability of interspike intervals was reduced by stimulation at all frequencies higher than about half the cells unperturbed rate, and interspike intervals were accurately predicted by the map. Long sequences of spike times were predicted by iterating on the map. The accuracy of that prediction varied with frequency. Spike time predictability was highest near and during phase lock. The map predicted the phase of firing on the input and its dependence on stimulus frequency. Prediction errors, when they occurred, were of two kinds: unpredicted variation in interspike interval from intrinsic cell noise, and accumulation of prediction errors from previous interspike intervals. Each type of prediction error arose from a different mechanism, and their impact was also predicted from the phase model. When two oscillatory input currents were presented simultaneously, striatal neurons responded selectively to only one of them, the one closest in frequency to the cell's unperturbed firing rate. Their spike times encoded the frequency and phase of that single oscillatory input.

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