Our model was built on a reconstructed Layer 5 pyramidal neuron of the rat medial prefrontal cortex, and constrained by 4 sets of experimental data: (i) voltage waveforms obtained at the site of the glutamatergic input in distal basal dendrite, including initial sodium spikelet, fast rise, plateau phase and abrupt collapse of the plateau; (ii) a family of voltage traces describing dendritic membrane responses to gradually increasing intensity of glutamatergic stimulation; (iii) voltage waveforms of backpropagating action potentials in basal dendrites (Antic, 2003); and (iv) the change of backpropagating action potential amplitude in response to drugs that block Na+ or K+ channels (Acker and Antic, 2009). Both, synaptic AMPA/NMDA and extrasynaptic NMDA inputs were placed on basal dendrites to model the induction of local regenerative potentials termed "glutamate-mediated dendritic plateau potentials". The active properties of the cell were tuned to match the voltage waveform, amplitude and duration of experimentally observed plateau potentials. The effects of input location, receptor conductance, channel properties and membrane time constant during plateau were explored. The new model predicted that during dendritic plateau potential the somatic membrane time constant is reduced. This and other model predictions were then tested in real neurons. Overall, the results support our theoretical framework that dendritic plateau potentials bring neuronal cell body into a depolarized state ("UP state"), which lasts 200 - 500 ms, or more. Plateau potentials profoundly change neuronal state -- a plateau potential triggered in one basal dendrite depolarizes the soma and shortens membrane time constant, making the cell more susceptible to action potential firing triggered by other afferent inputs. Plateau potentials may allow cortical pyramidal neurons to tune into ongoing network activity and potentially enable synchronized firing, to form active neural ensembles.
Model Type: Dendrite; Neuron or other electrically excitable cell
Region(s) or Organism(s): Prefrontal cortex (PFC); Neocortex
Cell Type(s): Neocortex L5/6 pyramidal GLU cell
Currents: I A; I K; I h; I K,Ca
Transmitters: Glutamate
Model Concept(s): Action Potentials; Active Dendrites; Calcium dynamics; Axonal Action Potentials; Dendritic Bistability; Detailed Neuronal Models; Membrane Properties; Synaptic Integration
Simulation Environment: NEURON; Python
Implementer(s): Antic, Srdjan [antic at neuron.uchc.edu]; Gao, Peng [peng at uchc.edu]
References:
Gao PP et al. (2021). Local Glutamate-Mediated Dendritic Plateau Potentials Change the State of the Cortical Pyramidal Neuron. Journal of neurophysiology. 125 [PubMed]