Topic: conductance-based simulations

Nonlinear, multiplication-like operations carried out by individual nerve cells greatly enhance the computational power of a neural system, but our understanding of their biophysical nature is scant. We pursue this problem in the Drosophila ON motion vision circuit, where we record the membrane potentials of direction-selective T4 neurons and of all their columnar input elements in response to visual and pharmacological stimuli in vivo. Our electrophysiological measurements and conductance-based simulations suggest a passive supralinear interaction between two distinct types of synapse on T4 d