In this study, we combined electrophysiological and computational approaches to unravel the functional organization of the electrically coupled neural networks. By measuring simultaneously from two neurons (Figure 1A), we found synchronized occurrence of distinct groups of events that represents electrical coupling and their rate and distribution enabled an accurate estimation of the number of connected cells (Figure 1B). Furthermore, the distribution of these common groups (Figure 1B, right panel) enables an insight into the organization of the network, suggesting that cluster organization (Figure 2C-D) is more likely to represent the organization of the network.

This study thus provides a new perspective on the functional and structural organization of the olivary nucleus and a novel experimental and theoretical approach to study electrically coupled networks.