Mediaspace scheduled maintenance: Aug 25, 2026 07:00 - 12:00 AM. During this time, videos will be temporarily unavailable. Check status updates.

Lecture

Biophysical Understanding of Neuronal Behavior

In course

NX-450: Computational neurosciences: biophysics

The course introduces students to a synthesis of modern neuroscience and state-of-the-art data management, modelling and computing technologies with a focus on the biophysical level. ...

Description

This lecture delves into the biophysical understanding of neuronal behavior, focusing on the generation of action potentials and other electrical phenomena in neurons. It covers the challenges in modeling neurons due to their complex structures and the importance of different levels of abstraction. The lecture explores various neuron models, from point neurons to detailed compartmental models, and discusses the implications of dendritic inhibition on neuronal dynamics. Through insights from computational models, the lecture highlights the significance of ion channels, membrane properties, and dendritic morphology in shaping neuronal activity.

This video is available exclusively on Mediaspace for a restricted audience. Please log in to MediaSpace to access it if you have the necessary permissions.

Watch on Mediaspace

Instructors (2)

Armando Romani

Felix Schürmann

Felix Schürmann is co-director of the Blue Brain Project and involved in several research challenges of the European Human Brain Project. He studied physics at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, supported by the German National Academic Foundation. Later, as a Fulbright Scholar, he obtained his Master's degree (M.S.) in Physics from the State University of New York, Buffalo, USA, under the supervision of Richard Gonsalves. During these studies, he became curious about the role of different computing substrates and dedicated his master thesis to the simulation of quantum computing. He studied for his Ph.D. at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, under the supervision of Karlheinz Meier. For his thesis he co-designed an efficient implementation of a neural network in hardware.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Biology

Cell biology: Neurotransmission

Related concepts (32)

Membrane potential

Membrane potential (also transmembrane potential or membrane voltage) is the difference in electric potential between the interior and the exterior of a biological cell. That is, there is a difference in the energy required for electric charges to move from the internal to exterior cellular environments and vice versa, as long as there is no acquisition of kinetic energy or the production of radiation. The concentration gradients of the charges directly determine this energy requirement.

Action potential

An action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific cell rapidly rises and falls. This depolarization then causes adjacent locations to similarly depolarize. Action potentials occur in several types of animal cells, called excitable cells, which include neurons, muscle cells, and in some plant cells. Certain endocrine cells such as pancreatic beta cells, and certain cells of the anterior pituitary gland are also excitable cells.

Inhibitory postsynaptic potential

An inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP) is a kind of synaptic potential that makes a postsynaptic neuron less likely to generate an action potential. IPSPs were first investigated in motorneurons by David P. C. Lloyd, John Eccles and Rodolfo Llinás in the 1950s and 1960s. The opposite of an inhibitory postsynaptic potential is an excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP), which is a synaptic potential that makes a postsynaptic neuron more likely to generate an action potential.

Biological neuron model

Biological neuron models, also known as a spiking neuron models, are mathematical descriptions of the properties of certain cells in the nervous system that generate sharp electrical potentials across their cell membrane, roughly one millisecond in duration, called action potentials or spikes (Fig. 2). Since spikes are transmitted along the axon and synapses from the sending neuron to many other neurons, spiking neurons are considered to be a major information processing unit of the nervous system.

Ion channel

Ion channels are pore-forming membrane proteins that allow ions to pass through the channel pore. Their functions include establishing a resting membrane potential, shaping action potentials and other electrical signals by gating the flow of ions across the cell membrane, controlling the flow of ions across secretory and epithelial cells, and regulating cell volume. Ion channels are present in the membranes of all cells. Ion channels are one of the two classes of ionophoric proteins, the other being ion transporters.

Related lectures (56)

Modeling the electrical activity of the neuron MOOC: Simulation Neurocience

Explores the modeling of neuron electrical activity, including ion channels and concentrations, Nernst equation, and resting potential.

Engineering Neurons: Optogenetics

Explores the engineering of neurons using light, chemicals, and sound to modulate neural activity and behavior.

Introduction into the module MOOC: Simulation Neurocience

Introduces nerve cells' electrical activity, focusing on spikes and synaptic potentials.

In Silico Neuroscience: Ion Channels and Neuronal Models

Explores detailed modeling of ion channels and neuronal morphologies in in silico neuroscience, covering neuron classification, ion channel kinetics, and experimental observations.

Threshold in the Hodgkin-Huxley Model MOOC: Neuronal Dynamics - Computational Neuroscience of Single Neurons