cns2001a

Abstract
Novel dynamics of dendritic integration in the high conductance state of cortical neurons.
Michael Rudolph and Alain Destexhe

Neurocomputing 44: 141-146, 2002.

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Abstract
Neocortical neurons in vivo operate in a high–conductance state which may affect the dynamics of dendritic integration, but this aspect remains only barely characterized. We investigated this problem by using biophysical models of morphologically–reconstructed neocortical pyramidal neurons in which isolated and paired synaptic events were studied according to their dendritic location. We show that during active states, there is an ongoing dynamics of randomly occurring forward– and back–propagating dendritic action potentials. This dynamics determinantly impacts on how individual or paired synaptic events interact, leading to a type of integrative behavior which is different from classical models of dendritic integration.
See also the following related articles:

Rudolph M and Destexhe A. A fast conducting, stochastic integrative mode for neocortical neurons in vivo. Journal of Neuroscience 23: 2466-2476, 2003.

Hô N and Destexhe A. Synaptic background activity enhances the responsiveness of neocortical pyramidal neurons. Journal of Neurophysiology 84: 1488-1496, 2000.

Destexhe A and Paré D, Impact of network activity on the integrative properties of neocortical pyramidal neurons in vivo. Journal of Neurophysiology 81: 1531-1547, 1999