title: Emergent spindle oscillations and intermittent burst firing in a thalamic model: specific neuronal mechanisms.
abstract: The rhythmogenesis of 10-Hz sleep spindles is studied in a large-scale thalamic network model with two cell populations: the excitatory thalamocortical (TC) relay neurons and the inhibitory nucleus reticularis thalami (RE) neurons. Spindle-like bursting oscillations emerge naturally from reciprocal interactions between TC and RE neurons. We find that the network oscillations can be synchronized coherently, even though the RE-TC connections are random and sparse, and even though individual neurons fire rebound bursts intermittently in time. When the fast gamma-aminobutyrate type A synaptic inhibition is blocked, synchronous slow oscillations resembling absence seizures are observed. Near-maximal network synchrony is established with even modest convergence in the RE-to-TC projection (as few as 5-10 RE inputs per TC cell suffice). The hyperpolarization-activated cation current (Ih) is found to provide a cellular basis for the intermittency of rebound bursting that is commonly observed in TC neurons during spindles. Such synchronous oscillations with intermittency can be maintained only with a significant degree of convergence for the TC-to-RE projection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.
authors.forename: X J
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Golomb
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rinzel
mesh_terms: D008959:Models, Neurological; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009435:Synaptic Transmission; D013788:Thalamus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid