Nolte, MaxReimann, Michael W.King, James G.Markram, HenryMuller, Eilif B.2019-09-052019-09-052019-09-052019-08-2210.1038/s41467-019-11633-8https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/160833WOS:000482183400001Typical responses of cortical neurons to identical sensory stimuli appear highly variable. It has thus been proposed that the cortex primarily uses a rate code. However, other studies have argued for spike-time coding under certain conditions. The potential role of spike-time coding is directly limited by the internally generated variability of cortical circuits, which remains largely unexplored. Here, we quantify this internally generated variability using a biophysical model of rat neocortical microcircuitry with biologically realistic noise sources. We find that stochastic neurotransmitter release is a critical component of internally generated variability, causing rapidly diverging, chaotic recurrent network dynamics. Surprisingly, the same non-linear recurrent network dynamics can transiently overcome the chaos in response to weak feed-forward thalamocortical inputs, and support reliable spike times with millisecond precision. Our model shows that the noisy and chaotic network dynamics of recurrent cortical microcircuitry are compatible with stimulus-evoked, millisecond spike-time reliability, resolving a long-standing debate.Multidisciplinary SciencesScience & Technology - Other Topicspyramidal neuronsin-vivovariabilitydynamicsstategliotransmissionconnectivityfluctuationsinformationpropagationtext::journal::journal article::research article