Neural Maturation Provides the Stability of Representation and the Solution for Understanding Complex Concepts

Abstract

Neural maturation must preserve flexible state dynamics while preventing those dynamics from becoming unstable, unreadable, or mismatched to learning. Here, I identify KCNH7, encoding the ERG3/Kv11.3 potassium channel, as a maturation-associated candidate regulator of such operating regimes. Public developmental, single-cell, and Patch-seq analyses linked KCNH7/ERG3 to late postnatal expression and passive-state electrophysiological axes. In conductance-based Purkinje-cell models, ERG3/KCNH7-like conductance increased the threshold for tonic firing while broadening pre-tonic response classes and enhancing target-specific rhythmic recruitment, indicating a regime shift rather than a simple excitability brake. KCNH7-inspired adaptive dynamics stabilized spiking learning and reshaped high-load associative retrieval beyond scalar threshold or temperature control. In recurrent conductance reservoirs, ERG3/KCNH7 scale and half-activation voltage tuned driven dynamical regime, spike-state versus voltage-state memory, and temporal-context-dependent prediction. Under degraded state transmission, moderate WT-like ERG3/KCNH7 conductance converted a vulnerable high-dynamic baseline into a low-fidelity support regime. Public in vivo population and behavioral analyses further supported the view that maturation- and disease-related phenotypes can be interpreted as alterations in operating-regime control rather than simple changes in activity or sensory performance. These results support KCNH7/ERG3 as a model case for linking ion-channel maturation to stable yet flexible neural computation.