Minimal requirements for a neuron to co-regulate many properties and the implications for ion channel correlations and robustness

ABSTRACT Neurons regulate their excitability by adjusting their ion channel levels. Degeneracy – achieving equivalent outcomes (excitability) using different solutions (channel combinations) – facilitates this regulation by enabling a disruptive change in one channel to be offset by compensatory changes in other channels. But neurons must co-regulate many properties. Pleiotropy – the impact of one channel on more than one property – complicates regulation because a compensatory ion channel change that restores one property to its target value often disrupts other properties. How then does a neuron simultaneously regulate multiple properties? Here we demonstrate that of the many channel combinations producing the target value for one property (the single-output solution set), few combinations produce the target value for other properties. Combinations producing the target value for two or more properties (the multi-output solution set) correspond to the intersection between single-output solution sets. Properties can be effectively co-regulated only if the number of adjustable channels ( n in ) exceeds the number of regulated properties ( n out ). Ion channel correlations emerge during homeostatic regulation when the dimensionality of solution space ( n in – n out ) is low. Even if each property can be regulated to its target value when considered in isolation, regulation as a whole fails if single-output solution sets do not intersect. Our results also highlight that ion channels must be co-adjusted with different ratios to regulate different properties, which suggests that each error signal drives modulatory changes independently, despite those changes ultimately affecting the same ion channels.