title: On the role of subthreshold currents in the Huber-Braun cold receptor model.
abstract: We study the role of the strength of subthreshold currents in a four-dimensional Hodgkin-Huxley-type model of mammalian cold receptors. Since a total diminution of subthreshold activity corresponds to a decomposition of the model into a slow, subthreshold, and a fast, spiking subsystem, we first elucidate their respective dynamics separately and draw conclusions about their role for the generation of different spiking patterns. These results motivate a numerical bifurcation analysis of the effect of varying the strength of subthreshold currents, which is done by varying a suitable control parameter. We work out the key mechanisms which can be attributed to subthreshold activity and furthermore elucidate the dynamical backbone of different activity patterns generated by this model.
authors.affiliation: ICBM, University of Oldenburg, Carl-von-Ossietzky-Strasse 9-11, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany. christian.finke@uni-oldenburg.de
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Finke
authors.forename: Jan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Freund
authors.forename: Epaminondas
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rosa
authors.forename: Hans A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Feudel
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D003080:Cold Temperature; D015640:Ion Channel Gating; D008959:Models, Neurological; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000378:metabolism*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface