Flexibility in the nervous system: Regulation of axonal spike initiation in a sensory neuron fine-tunes signal integration

Abstract

Generating appropriate behavioral responses to sensory inputs is a pivotal function of the nervous system. Changes in internal conditions or the environment elicit action potentials that travel along the axon of sensory neurons to inform the central nervous system of the occurred changes. My work shows for the first time that neurons in the central nervous system feed back to the sensory system and regulate action potential initiation in the sensory axon. This regulation increases the activity repertoire of the sensory system and represents a so far undiscovered mechanism to enhance flexibility in neural networks.