" ... In single Purkinje cells, spontaneous and synaptically evoked dendritic calcium bursts come in a variety of shapes with a variable number of spikes. The mechanisms causing this variability have never been investigated thoroughly. In this study, a detailed computational model employing novel simulation routines is applied to identify the roles that stochastic ion channels, spatial arrangements of ion channels and stochastic intracellular calcium have towards producing calcium burst variability. … Our findings suggest that stochastic intracellular calcium mechanisms play a crucial role in dendritic calcium spike generation and are, therefore, an essential consideration in studies of neuronal excitability and plasticity."
Model Type: Neuron or other electrically excitable cell; Dendrite
Region(s) or Organism(s): Cerebellum
Cell Type(s): Cerebellum Purkinje GABA cell
Currents: I Na,t; I T low threshold; I p,q; I K; I K,Ca; Ca pump
Receptors: AMPA
Genes: Cav3.1 CACNA1G; Cav2.1 CACNA1A
Model Concept(s): Dendritic Action Potentials; Active Dendrites; Calcium dynamics
Simulation Environment: STEPS (web link to model)
Implementer(s): Anwar, Haroon [haroon.anwar at gmail.com]; Hepburn, Iain [ihepburn at oist.jp]
References:
Anwar H, Hepburn I, Nedelescu H, Chen W, De Schutter E. (2013). Stochastic calcium mechanisms cause dendritic calcium spike variability. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 33 [PubMed]