The code provided here was written to systematically investigate which of the physical parameters controlled by dendritic morphology underlies the differences in spiking behaviour observed in different realizations of the 'ping-pong'-model. Structurally varying dendritic topology and length in a simplified model allows us to separate out the physical parameters derived from morphology underlying burst firing. To perform the parameter scans we created a new NEURON tool the MultipleRunControl which can be used to easily set up a parameter scan and write the simulation results to file. Using this code we found that not input conductance but the arrival time of the return current, as measured provisionally by the average electrotonic path length, determines whether the pyramidal cell (with ping-pong model dynamics) will burst or fire single spikes.
Model Type: Neuron or other electrically excitable cell
Region(s) or Organism(s): Neocortex
Cell Type(s): Neocortex L5/6 pyramidal GLU cell
Currents: I Na,t; I K; I M; I K,Ca; I Sodium; I Calcium; I Potassium
Model Concept(s): Activity Patterns; Bursting; Spatio-temporal Activity Patterns; Simplified Models; Active Dendrites; Influence of Dendritic Geometry; Detailed Neuronal Models; Methods
Simulation Environment: NEURON; MATLAB
Implementer(s): van Elburg, Ronald A.J. [R.van.Elburg at ai.rug.nl]
References:
van Elburg RA, van Ooyen A. (2010). Impact of dendritic size and dendritic topology on burst firing in pyramidal cells. PLoS computational biology. 6 [PubMed]