Growth Cone Pathfinding: a competition between deterministic and stochastic events

Susan M Maskery¹ , Helen M Buettner¹^,2 and Troy Shinbrot²

¹Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Rutgers University, 98 Brett Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

²Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rutgers University, 617 Bowser Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

author email corresponding author email

BMC Neuroscience 2004, 5:22doi:10.1186/1471-2202-5-22


Published:	8 July 2004

Abstract

Background

Growth cone migratory patterns show evidence of both deterministic and stochastic search modes.

Results

We quantitatively examine how these two different migration modes affect the growth cone's pathfinding response, by simulating growth cone contact with a repulsive cue and measuring the resultant turn angle. We develop a dimensionless number, we call the determinism ratio Ψ, to define the ratio of deterministic to stochastic influences driving the growth cone's migration in response to an external guidance cue. We find that the growth cone can exhibit three distinct types of turning behaviors depending on the magnitude of Ψ.

Conclusions

We conclude, within the context of these in silico studies, that only when deterministic and stochastic migration factors are in balance (i.e. Ψ ~ 1) can the growth cone respond constructively to guidance cues.