New Paper:
The effect of dendritic topology on firing patterns in model neurons.
Network: Computation in Neural Systems (2002) 13: 311-325.
Van Ooyen, A., Duijnhouwer, J., Remme, M. W. H., Van Pelt, J.
Request a reprint: A.van.Ooyen at nih.knaw.nl
Or download (free this month) from Network, in PDF format:
http://www.iop.org/EJ/S/UNREG/le4r7euPYmgDkGAO,09UUw/article/-ffissn=0954-898X/-ff30=all/0954-898X/13/3/304/ne2304.pdf
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract:
Neuronal firing patterns are influenced by both membrane properties and
dendritic morphology.
Distinguishing two sources of morphological variability---metrics and
topology---we investigate
the extent to which model neurons that have the same metrical and
membrane properties can still
produce different firing patterns as a result of differences in
dendritic topology. Within a set of
dendritic trees that have the same number of terminal segments and the
same total dendritic length,
we show that firing frequency strongly correlates with topology as
expressed by the mean dendritic
path length. The effect of dendritic topology on firing frequency is
bigger for trees with equal segment
diameters than for trees whose segment diameters obey Rall's 3/2 power
law. If active dendritic channels
are present, dendritic topology influences not only firing frequency but
also type of firing (regular, bursting).
--
Arjen van Ooyen, Netherlands Institute for Brain Research,
Meibergdreef 33, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
email: A.van.Ooyen at nih.knaw.nl
website: http://www.anc.ed.ac.uk/~arjen
phone: +31.20.5665483 fax: +31.20.6961006
---
