Bursting Neurons Signal Input Slope Export

@article{citeulike:877883, abstract = {Brief bursts of high-frequency action potentials represent a common firing mode of pyramidal neurons, and there are indications that they represent a special neural code. It is therefore of interest to determine whether there are particular spatial and temporal features of neuronal inputs that trigger bursts. Recent work on pyramidal cells indicates that bursts can be initiated by a specific spatial arrangement of inputs in which there is coincident proximal and distal dendritic excitation (Larkum et al., 1999). Here we have used a computational model of an important class of bursting neurons to investigate whether there are special temporal features of inputs that trigger bursts. We find that when a model pyramidal neuron receives sinusoidally or randomly varying inputs, bursts occur preferentially on the positive slope of the input signal. We further find that the number of spikes per burst can signal the magnitude of the slope in a graded manner. We show how these computations can be understood in terms of the biophysical mechanism of burst generation. There are several examples in the literature suggesting that bursts indeed occur preferentially on positive slopes (Guido et al., 1992; Gabbiani et al., 1996). Our results suggest that this selectivity could be a simple consequence of the biophysics of burst generation. Our observations also raise the possibility that neurons use a burst duration code useful for rapid information transmission. This possibility could be further examined experimentally by looking for correlations between burst duration and stimulus variables.}, address = {Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454-9110, USA.}, author = {Kepecs, Adam and Wang, Xiao-Jing and Lisman, John}, citeulike-article-id = {877883}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/22/20/9053}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12388612}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=12388612}, day = {15}, issn = {1529-2401}, journal = {J. Neurosci.}, keywords = {burst, bursts, coding}, month = {October}, number = {20}, pages = {9053--9062}, posted-at = {2009-07-29 15:44:24}, priority = {2}, title = {Bursting Neurons Signal Input Slope}, url = {http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/22/20/9053}, volume = {22}, year = {2002} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:877883 L3 - citeulike-article-id:877883 N2 - Brief bursts of high-frequency action potentials represent a common firing mode of pyramidal neurons, and there are indications that they represent a special neural code. It is therefore of interest to determine whether there are particular spatial and temporal features of neuronal inputs that trigger bursts. Recent work on pyramidal cells indicates that bursts can be initiated by a specific spatial arrangement of inputs in which there is coincident proximal and distal dendritic excitation (Larkum et al., 1999). Here we have used a computational model of an important class of bursting neurons to investigate whether there are special temporal features of inputs that trigger bursts. We find that when a model pyramidal neuron receives sinusoidally or randomly varying inputs, bursts occur preferentially on the positive slope of the input signal. We further find that the number of spikes per burst can signal the magnitude of the slope in a graded manner. We show how these computations can be understood in terms of the biophysical mechanism of burst generation. There are several examples in the literature suggesting that bursts indeed occur preferentially on positive slopes (Guido et al., 1992; Gabbiani et al., 1996). Our results suggest that this selectivity could be a simple consequence of the biophysics of burst generation. Our observations also raise the possibility that neurons use a burst duration code useful for rapid information transmission. This possibility could be further examined experimentally by looking for correlations between burst duration and stimulus variables. IS - 20 JF - J. Neurosci. SN - 1529-2401 AD - Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454-9110, USA. EP - 9062 TI - Bursting Neurons Signal Input Slope VL - 22 SP - 9053 KW - burst KW - bursts KW - coding AU - Kepecs, Adam AU - Wang, Xiao-Jing AU - Lisman, John PY - 2002/10/15/ UR - http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/22/20/9053 ER -