Topic: NMDA-spikes

Dysregulation of emotional processing and its integration with cognitive functions are central features of many mental/emotional disorders associated both with externalizing problems (aggressive, antisocial behaviors) and internalizing problems (anxiety, depression). As Dr. Joseph LeDoux, our invited speaker of this program, wrote in his famous book “Synaptic self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are”—the brain’s synapses—are the channels through which we think, act, imagine, feel, and remember. Synapses encode the essence of personality, enabling each of us to function as a distinctive, integrat

Most models of neural computation used in artificial intelligence and neuroscience use point neurons, attributing computational complexity to the network level. This approach overlooks the computational complexity of single biological neurons. Neural dendrites exhibit many different nonlinear dynamics, temporal-spatial filtering, and internal feedback and amplification mechanisms (London & Häusser 2005). Abstracting the entire dendritic arbor into a single compartment thus omits useful computational properties (Poirazi et al. 2003). Three main factors contribute to the integration process: (1)

This study takes an analytic approach to delve into the dynamics of pyramidal neurons, focusing on interplay of the basal and perisomatic regions. A significant portion of recurrent excitatory connections converge onto the basal dendrites, generating N-Methyl-D-Aspartate (NMDA) driven depolarizations, also known as NMDA-spikes. The time-scale of NMDA-spikes significantly surpasses the neuronal membrane time-scale by a factor of five, underscoring their relevance in information integration. The voltage dynamics within the dendric subunits remain unaffected by somatic spikes, enabling their inde