Balanced excitatory and inhibitory synaptic currents promote efficient coding and metabolic efficiency.

ABSTRACT: A balance between excitatory and inhibitory synaptic currents is thought to be important for several aspects of information processing in cortical neurons in vivo, including gain control, bandwidth and receptive field structure. These factors will affect the firing rate of cortical neurons and their reliability, with consequences for their information coding and energy consumption. Yet how balanced synaptic currents contribute to the coding efficiency and energy efficiency of cortical neurons remains unclear. We used single compartment computational models with stochastic voltage-gated ion channels to determine whether synaptic regimes that produce balanced excitatory and inhibitory currents have specific advantages over other input regimes. Specifically, we compared models with only excit

SUBMITTER: Sengupta B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3789774 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature