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Spontaneous action potentials and neural coding in unmyelinated axons

O'Donnell, Cian; van Rossum, Mark C.W.

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Authors

Cian O'Donnell

Mark C.W. van Rossum



Abstract

The voltage-gated Na and K channels in neurons are responsible for action potential generation. Because ion channels open and close in a stochastic fashion, spontaneous (ectopic) action potentials can result even in the absence of stimulation. While spontaneous action potentials have been studied in detail in single-compartment models, studies on spatially extended processes have been limited. The simulations and analysis presented here show that spontaneous rate in unmyelinated axon depends nonmonotonically on the length of the axon, that the spontaneous activity has sub-Poisson statistics, and that neural coding can be hampered by the spontaneous spikes by reducing the probability of transmitting the first spike in a train.

Citation

O'Donnell, C., & van Rossum, M. C. (2015). Spontaneous action potentials and neural coding in unmyelinated axons. Neural Computation, 27(4), https://doi.org/10.1162/NECO_a_00705

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 29, 2014
Online Publication Date Mar 17, 2015
Publication Date Apr 30, 2015
Deposit Date Feb 8, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Neural Computation
Print ISSN 0899-7667
Electronic ISSN 1530-888X
Publisher Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 27
Issue 4
DOI https://doi.org/10.1162/NECO_a_00705
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/748901
Publisher URL https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/10.1162/NECO_a_00705

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