Lecture

Compartmental Models: Active Dendrites

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Description

This lecture covers compartmental models in computational neuroscience, focusing on active dendrites. It discusses the mathematical equations describing dendritic behavior, the spatial distribution of ion currents, and the software tools used for simulations. The lecture also explores a model by Hay et al. (2011) with 200 compartments, sodium and calcium currents, potassium currents, and an unspecific current. Additionally, it delves into experiments on active dendrites, including backpropagating action potentials and dendritic calcium spikes.

In MOOC

Neuronal Dynamics - Computational Neuroscience of Single Neurons

This course gives an introduction to the field of theoretical and computational neuroscience with a focus on models of single neurons. Neurons encode information about stimuli in a sequence of short electrical pulses (spikes).

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Biology

Cell biology: Neurotransmission

Related concepts (32)

Spike-timing-dependent plasticity

Spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) is a biological process that adjusts the strength of connections between neurons in the brain. The process adjusts the connection strengths based on the relative timing of a particular neuron's output and input action potentials (or spikes). The STDP process partially explains the activity-dependent development of nervous systems, especially with regard to long-term potentiation and long-term depression.

Synaptic plasticity

In neuroscience, synaptic plasticity is the ability of synapses to strengthen or weaken over time, in response to increases or decreases in their activity. Since memories are postulated to be represented by vastly interconnected neural circuits in the brain, synaptic plasticity is one of the important neurochemical foundations of learning and memory (see Hebbian theory). Plastic change often results from the alteration of the number of neurotransmitter receptors located on a synapse.

Computational neuroscience

Computational neuroscience (also known as theoretical neuroscience or mathematical neuroscience) is a branch of neuroscience which employs mathematical models, computer simulations, theoretical analysis and abstractions of the brain to understand the principles that govern the development, structure, physiology and cognitive abilities of the nervous system. Computational neuroscience employs computational simulations to validate and solve mathematical models, and so can be seen as a sub-field of theoretical neuroscience; however, the two fields are often synonymous.

Dendrite

A dendrite (from Greek δένδρον déndron, "tree") or dendron is a branched protoplasmic extension of a nerve cell that propagates the electrochemical stimulation received from other neural cells to the cell body, or soma, of the neuron from which the dendrites project. Electrical stimulation is transmitted onto dendrites by upstream neurons (usually via their axons) via synapses which are located at various points throughout the dendritic tree.

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.

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