Impact of dendritic size and dendritic topology on burst firing in pyramidal cells.

ABSTRACT: Neurons display a wide range of intrinsic firing patterns. A particularly relevant pattern for neuronal signaling and synaptic plasticity is burst firing, the generation of clusters of action potentials with short interspike intervals. Besides ion-channel composition, dendritic morphology appears to be an important factor modulating firing pattern. However, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood, and the impact of morphology on burst firing remains insufficiently known. Dendritic morphology is not fixed but can undergo significant changes in many pathological conditions. Using computational models of neocortical pyramidal cells, we here show that not only the total length of the apical dendrite but also the topological structure of its branching pattern markedly influences inter-

SUBMITTER: van Elburg RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2869305 | biostudies-literature | 2010 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature