"... We introduce a space-state model in which the discharge activity of motor neurons is modeled as inhomogeneous Poisson processes and propose a method to quantify an abstract latent trajectory that represents the common input received by motor neurons. The approach also approximates the variation in synaptic noise in the common input signal. The model is validated with four data sets: a simulation of 120 motor units, a pair of integrate-and-fire neurons with a Renshaw cell providing inhibitory feedback, the discharge activity of 10 integrate-and-fire neurons, and the discharge times of concurrently active motor units during an isometric voluntary contraction. The simulations revealed that a latent state-space model is able to quantify the trajectory and variability of the common input signal across all four conditions. When compared with the cumulative spike train method of characterizing common input, the state-space approach was more sensitive to the details of the common input current and was less influenced by the duration of the signal. The state-space approach appears to be capable of detecting rather modest changes in common input signals across conditions."
Model Type: Synapse
Cell Type(s): Spinal cord renshaw cell; Abstract integrate-and-fire leaky neuron
Model Concept(s): Action Potentials; Synaptic noise
Simulation Environment: MATLAB
References:
Feeney DF, Meyer FG, Noone N, Enoka RM. (2017). A latent low-dimensional common input drives a pool of motor neurons: a probabilistic latent state-space model. Journal of neurophysiology. 118 [PubMed]