Rhesus Monkey Layer 3 Pyramidal Neurons: Young vs aged PFC (Coskren et
al. 2015)

README for the models associated with the paper

Coskren PJ, Luebke JI, Kabaso BD, Wearne SL, Yadav A, Rumbell T, Hof
PR, Weaver CM. Functional consequences of age-related morphologic
changes to pyramidal neurons of the rhesus monkey prefrontal cortex.
Journal of Computational Neuroscience (2015).

These files were contributed by Christina Weaver [christina.weaver at
fandm.edu], and run under the NEURON simulation environment.

Summary:

Layer 3 (L3) pyramidal neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC)
of rhesus monkeys exhibit dendritic regression, spine loss and
increased action potential (AP) firing rates during normal aging.  The
relationship between these structural and functional alterations, if
any, is unknown. Computational models using the digital
reconstructions with Hodgkin-Huxley and AMPA channels allowed us to
assess relationships between demonstrated age-related changes and to
predict physiological changes that have not yet been tested
empirically. Tuning passive parameters for each model predicted
significantly higher membrane resistance (Rm) in aged versus young
neurons.  This Rm increase alone did not account for the empirically
observed fI-curves, but coupling these Rm values with subtle
differences in morphology and membrane capacitance Cm did. The
predicted differences in passive parameters (or other parameters with
similar effects) are mathematically plausible, but must be tested
empirically.

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This model can be run by starting the mosinit.hoc with:

nrngui mosinit.hoc

or double clicking on the mosinit.hoc file after the mod files have
been compiled (nrnivmodl compiles in unix, mknrndll in mswin, mac)

The mosinit.hoc file reproduces data from Figure 7 of the paper.  To
reproduce data from Figure 6 of the paper, see the README in the
HHmodel directory.

After the simulation starts, if you click the "test firing rate"
button at the bottom and click "GO" after a few moments you should see
a window like: