Multimodal encoding in a simplified model of intracellular calcium signaling

Many cells use calcium signalling to carry information from the extracellular side of the plasma membrane to targets in their interior. Since virtually all cells employ a network of biochemical reactions for Ca2+ signalling, much effort has been devoted to understand the functional role of Ca2+ responses and to decipher how their complex dynamics is regulated by the biochemical network of Ca2+-related signal transduction pathways. Experimental observations show that Ca2+ signals in response to external stimuli encode information via frequency modulation or alternatively via amplitude modulation. Although minimal models can capture separately both types of dynamics, they fail to exhibit different and more advanced encoding modes. By arguments of bifurcation theory, we propose instead that under some biophysical conditions more complex modes of information encoding can also be manifested by minimal models. We consider the minimal model of Li and Rinzel and show that information encoding can occur by amplitude modulation (AM) of Ca2+ oscillations, by frequency modulation (FM) or by both modes (AFM). Our work is motivated by calcium signalling in astrocytes, the predominant type of cortical glial cells that is nowadays recognized to play a crucial role in the regulation of neuronal activity and information processing of the brain. We explain that our results can be crucial for a better understanding of synaptic information transfer. Furthermore, our results might also be important for better insight on other examples of physiological processes regulated by Ca2+ signalling.