Thalamocortical Relay cell under current clamp in high-conductance state (Zeldenrust et al 2018)

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Accession:232876
Mammalian thalamocortical relay (TCR) neurons switch their firing activity between a tonic spiking and a bursting regime. In a combined experimental and computational study, we investigated the features in the input signal that single spikes and bursts in the output spike train represent and how this code is influenced by the membrane voltage state of the neuron. Identical frozen Gaussian noise current traces were injected into TCR neurons in rat brain slices to adjust, fine-tune and validate a three-compartment TCR model cell (Destexhe et al. 1998, accession number 279). Three currents were added: an h-current (Destexhe et al. 1993,1996, accession number 3343), a high-threshold calcium current and a calcium- activated potassium current (Huguenard & McCormick 1994, accession number 3808). The information content carried by the various types of events in the signal as well as by the whole signal was calculated. Bursts phase-lock to and transfer information at lower frequencies than single spikes. On depolarization the neuron transits smoothly from the predominantly bursting regime to a spiking regime, in which it is more sensitive to high-frequency fluctuations. Finally, the model was used to in the more realistic “high-conductance state” (Destexhe et al. 2001, accession number 8115), while being stimulated with a Poisson input (Brette et al. 2007, Vogels & Abbott 2005, accession number 83319), where fluctuations are caused by (synaptic) conductance changes instead of current injection. Under “standard” conditions bursts are difficult to initiate, given the high degree of inactivation of the T-type calcium current. Strong and/or precisely timed inhibitory currents were able to remove this inactivation.
Reference:
1 . Zeldenrust F, Chameau P, Wadman WJ (2018) Spike and burst coding in thalamocortical relay cells. PLoS Comput Biol 14:e1005960 [PubMed]
2 . Destexhe A, Bal T, McCormick DA, Sejnowski TJ (1996) Ionic mechanisms underlying synchronized oscillations and propagating waves in a model of ferret thalamic slices. J Neurophysiol 76:2049-70 [PubMed]
3 . Huguenard JP, Mccormick DA (1994) Electrophysiology of the Neuron: An Interactive Tutorial
4 . Destexhe A, Rudolph M, Fellous JM, Sejnowski TJ (2001) Fluctuating synaptic conductances recreate in vivo-like activity in neocortical neurons. Neuroscience 107:13-24 [PubMed]
5 . Brette R, Rudolph M, Carnevale T, Hines M, Beeman D, Bower JM, Diesmann M, Morrison A, Goodman PH, Harris FC, Zirpe M, Natschläger T, Pecevski D, Ermentrout B, Djurfeldt M, Lansner A, Rochel O, Vieville T, Muller E, Davison AP, El Boustani S, Destexhe A (2007) Simulation of networks of spiking neurons: a review of tools and strategies. J Comput Neurosci 23:349-98 [PubMed]
6 . Vogels TP, Abbott LF (2005) Signal propagation and logic gating in networks of integrate-and-fire neurons. J Neurosci 25:10786-95 [PubMed]
7 . Destexhe A, Neubig M, Ulrich D, Huguenard J (1998) Dendritic low-threshold calcium currents in thalamic relay cells. J Neurosci 18:3574-88 [PubMed]
8 . Destexhe A, Babloyantz A, Sejnowski TJ (1993) Ionic mechanisms for intrinsic slow oscillations in thalamic relay neurons. Biophys J 65:1538-52 [PubMed]
Citations  Citation Browser
Model Information (Click on a link to find other models with that property)
Model Type: Neuron or other electrically excitable cell;
Brain Region(s)/Organism: Thalamus;
Cell Type(s): Thalamus geniculate nucleus/lateral principal GLU cell;
Channel(s): I L high threshold; I K,Ca; I h; I T low threshold;
Gap Junctions:
Receptor(s):
Gene(s):
Transmitter(s):
Simulation Environment: NEURON;
Model Concept(s): Bursting; Information transfer; Rebound firing; Sensory coding;
Implementer(s): Zeldenrust, Fleur [fleurzeldenrust at gmail.com];
Search NeuronDB for information about:  Thalamus geniculate nucleus/lateral principal GLU cell; I L high threshold; I T low threshold; I h; I K,Ca;
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TCR
high_conductance_state
cells
cadecay.mod *
Gfluct.mod
hh2.mod *
ic.mod *
Ih_des93.mod *
il.mod *
ITGHK.mod *
VClamp.mod *
El.oc *
loc3.oc *
ranstream.hoc
tc3_high_conductance.hoc
                            
TITLE Fluctuating conductances

COMMENT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Fluctuating conductance model for synaptic bombardment
	======================================================

THEORY

  Synaptic bombardment is represented by a stochastic model containing
  two fluctuating conductances g_e(t) and g_i(t) descibed by:

     Isyn = g_e(t) * [V - E_e] + g_i(t) * [V - E_i]
     d g_e / dt = -(g_e - g_e0) / tau_e + sqrt(D_e) * Ft
     d g_i / dt = -(g_i - g_i0) / tau_i + sqrt(D_i) * Ft

  where E_e, E_i are the reversal potentials, g_e0, g_i0 are the average
  conductances, tau_e, tau_i are time constants, D_e, D_i are noise diffusion
  coefficients and Ft is a gaussian white noise of unit standard deviation.

  g_e and g_i are described by an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) stochastic process
  where tau_e and tau_i represent the "correlation" (if tau_e and tau_i are 
  zero, g_e and g_i are white noise).  The estimation of OU parameters can
  be made from the power spectrum:

     S(w) =  2 * D * tau^2 / (1 + w^2 * tau^2)

  and the diffusion coeffient D is estimated from the variance:

     D = 2 * sigma^2 / tau


NUMERICAL RESOLUTION

  The numerical scheme for integration of OU processes takes advantage 
  of the fact that these processes are gaussian, which led to an exact
  update rule independent of the time step dt (see Gillespie DT, Am J Phys 
  64: 225, 1996):

     x(t+dt) = x(t) * exp(-dt/tau) + A * N(0,1)

  where A = sqrt( D*tau/2 * (1-exp(-2*dt/tau)) ) and N(0,1) is a normal
  random number (avg=0, sigma=1)


IMPLEMENTATION

  This mechanism is implemented as a nonspecific current defined as a
  point process.


PARAMETERS

  The mechanism takes the following parameters:

     E_e = 0  (mV)		: reversal potential of excitatory conductance
     E_i = -75 (mV)		: reversal potential of inhibitory conductance

     g_e0 = 0.0121 (umho)	: average excitatory conductance
     g_i0 = 0.0573 (umho)	: average inhibitory conductance

     std_e = 0.0030 (umho)	: standard dev of excitatory conductance
     std_i = 0.0066 (umho)	: standard dev of inhibitory conductance

     tau_e = 2.728 (ms)		: time constant of excitatory conductance
     tau_i = 10.49 (ms)		: time constant of inhibitory conductance


Gfluct2: conductance cannot be negative


REFERENCE

  Destexhe, A., Rudolph, M., Fellous, J-M. and Sejnowski, T.J.  
  Fluctuating synaptic conductances recreate in-vivo--like activity in
  neocortical neurons. Neuroscience 107: 13-24 (2001).

  (electronic copy available at http://cns.iaf.cnrs-gif.fr)


  A. Destexhe, 1999

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ENDCOMMENT



INDEPENDENT {t FROM 0 TO 1 WITH 1 (ms)}

NEURON {
	POINT_PROCESS Gfluct2
	RANGE g_e, g_i, E_e, E_i, g_e0, g_i0, g_e1, g_i1
	RANGE std_e, std_i, tau_e, tau_i, D_e, D_i
	NONSPECIFIC_CURRENT i
}

UNITS {
	(nA) = (nanoamp) 
	(mV) = (millivolt)
	(umho) = (micromho)
}

PARAMETER {
	dt		(ms)

	E_e	= 0 	(mV)	: reversal potential of excitatory conductance
	E_i	= -75 	(mV)	: reversal potential of inhibitory conductance

	g_e0	= 0.0121 (umho)	: average excitatory conductance
	g_i0	= 0.0573 (umho)	: average inhibitory conductance

	std_e	= 0.0030 (umho)	: standard dev of excitatory conductance
	std_i	= 0.0066 (umho)	: standard dev of inhibitory conductance

	tau_e	= 2.728	(ms)	: time constant of excitatory conductance
	tau_i	= 10.49	(ms)	: time constant of inhibitory conductance
}

ASSIGNED {
	v	(mV)		: membrane voltage
	i 	(nA)		: fluctuating current
	g_e	(umho)		: total excitatory conductance
	g_i	(umho)		: total inhibitory conductance
	g_e1	(umho)		: fluctuating excitatory conductance
	g_i1	(umho)		: fluctuating inhibitory conductance
	D_e	(umho umho /ms) : excitatory diffusion coefficient
	D_i	(umho umho /ms) : inhibitory diffusion coefficient
	exp_e
	exp_i
	amp_e	(umho)
	amp_i	(umho)
}

INITIAL {
	g_e1 = 0
	g_i1 = 0
	if(tau_e != 0) {
		D_e = 2 * std_e * std_e / tau_e
		exp_e = exp(-dt/tau_e)
		amp_e = std_e * sqrt( (1-exp(-2*dt/tau_e)) )
	}
	if(tau_i != 0) {
		D_i = 2 * std_i * std_i / tau_i
		exp_i = exp(-dt/tau_i)
		amp_i = std_i * sqrt( (1-exp(-2*dt/tau_i)) )
	}
}

BREAKPOINT {
	SOLVE oup
	if(tau_e==0) {
	   g_e = std_e * normrand(0,1)
	}
	if(tau_i==0) {
	   g_i = std_i * normrand(0,1)
	}
	g_e = g_e0 + g_e1
	if(g_e < 0) { g_e = 0 }
	g_i = g_i0 + g_i1
	if(g_i < 0) { g_i = 0 }
	i = g_e * (v - E_e) + g_i * (v - E_i)
}


PROCEDURE oup() {		: use Scop function normrand(mean, std_dev)
   if(tau_e!=0) {
	g_e1 =  exp_e * g_e1 + amp_e * normrand(0,1)
   }
   if(tau_i!=0) {
	g_i1 =  exp_i * g_i1 + amp_i * normrand(0,1)
   }
}


PROCEDURE new_seed(seed) {		: procedure to set the seed
	set_seed(seed)
	VERBATIM
	  printf("Setting random generator with seed = %g\n", _lseed);
	ENDVERBATIM
}