Experimental Studies of Anticipative Dynamics in Neuronal Networks

Understanding how neural systems integrate sensory signals to perceive time is a fundamental problem. However, the basic neuronal mechanism of temporal perception is still far from clear. Currently, there is a debate on whether a specialized clock is needed for time perception (TP). Our view is that TP can be a general property of neural networks endowed with short-term synaptic plasticity (STSP) and enough recurrent connections. Recent simulation studies of anticipative dynamics (one form of TP) support this later mechanism. The goals of our proposed experiments are: i) to demonstrate that STSP is crucial in the anticipative dynamics in the retina of frogs and ii) to induce anticipative dynamics in a cortical neuronal culture of rats by using a recently invented photo-sensitive technique based on the organic semi-conducting polymers, P3HT, and the optogenetic tool, Channelrhodosin-2. Since there are no special clock circuits in the retina and the cortical culture, results our proposed works will help to clear some of the controversies in the perception of time.