Séminaire du CIMMUL – Afroditi Talidou

Diverse myelination motifs impact neural signalling reliability and predisposition to demyelination

Afroditi Talidou

Chercheuse postdoctorale
Université d’Ottawa

Résumé

Axons display significant variations in their myelination motifs. Far from being uniform, the distribution patterns of myelin sheaths vary significantly between axons, and across brain areas. To explore the influence of such variability on axonal conduction, we developed an axon model based on a system of PDEs, exhibiting myelin distributions mirroring those observed experimentally in different regions of the central nervous system of mice. In this talk, I will present how such variability impacts axonal conduction timing and reliability. Action potential propagation was found to be highly sensitive to the specific distribution and ordering of myelinated and exposed segments along axons, indicating that axonal conduction is non-linear and path-dependent. Furthermore, properties of axonal conduction were found to differ between axons in the cerebral cortex and corpus callosum, influencing their vulnerability to demyelination, while shaping both conduction time and predisposition to failure. Our analysis indicates that callosal axons are particularly sensitive to myelin changes, especially after damage. These findings highlight the crucial role of myelination profiles in brain function and disease.

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Le séminaire aura lieu au local 3820 du pavillon Alexandre-Vachon et en ligne.

Pour rejoindre la réunion Zoom :
https://ulaval.zoom.us/j/62680136430?pwd=eldBYjdNTG5QR2VxTTFqbVM4UGVRZz09

Meeting ID: 626 8013 6430
Passcode: 693150