title: Spike-timing prediction in cortical neurons with active dendrites.
abstract: A complete single-neuron model must correctly reproduce the firing of spikes and bursts. We present a study of a simplified model of deep pyramidal cells of the cortex with active dendrites. We hypothesized that we can model the soma and its apical dendrite with only two compartments, without significant loss in the accuracy of spike-timing predictions. The model is based on experimentally measurable impulse-response functions, which transfer the effect of current injected in one compartment to current reaching the other. Each compartment was modeled with a pair of non-linear differential equations and a small number of parameters that approximate the Hodgkin-and-Huxley equations. The predictive power of this model was tested on electrophysiological experiments where noisy current was injected in both the soma and the apical dendrite simultaneously. We conclude that a simple two-compartment model can predict spike times of pyramidal cells stimulated in the soma and dendrites simultaneously. Our results support that regenerating activity in the apical dendritic is required to properly account for the dynamics of layer 5 pyramidal cells under in-vivo-like conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Ottawa Ottawa, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Naud
authors.affiliation: Cortical Dynamics and Multisensory Processing Team, Unit of Neuroscience Information and Complexity, CNRS UPR-3239 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Brice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bathellier
authors.affiliation: School of Computer and Communication Sciences and School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Wulfram
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gerstner
keywords: cortical neurons; dendrites; models; neuron models; spike train analysis; theoretical