title: What is the most realistic single-compartment model of spike initiation?
abstract: A large variety of neuron models are used in theoretical and computational neuroscience, and among these, single-compartment models are a popular kind. These models do not explicitly include the dendrites or the axon, and range from the Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) model to various flavors of integrate-and-fire (IF) models. The main classes of models differ in the way spikes are initiated. Which one is the most realistic? Starting with some general epistemological considerations, I show that the notion of realism comes in two dimensions: empirical content (the sort of predictions that a model can produce) and empirical accuracy (whether these predictions are correct). I then examine the realism of the main classes of single-compartment models along these two dimensions, in light of recent experimental evidence.
authors: Institut d'Etudes de la Cognition, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France; Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, UMR_S 968, Institut de la Vision, Paris, France; INSERM, U968, Paris, France; CNRS, UMR_7210, Paris, France.
authors: Romain
authors: R
authors: Brette
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004056:Differential Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D015640:Ion Channel Gating / Q000502:physiology; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000502:physiology*; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D007473:Ion Channels