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Concept
Biological neuron model
Summary
Biological neuron models, also known as a spiking neuron models, are mathematical descriptions of the properties of certain cells in the nervous system that generate sharp electrical potentials across their cell membrane, roughly one millisecond in duration, called action potentials or spikes (Fig. 2). Since spikes are transmitted along the axon and synapses from the sending neuron to many other neurons, spiking neurons are considered to be a major information processing unit of the nervous system. Spiking neuron models can be divided into different categories: the most detailed mathematical models are biophysical neuron models (also called Hodgkin-Huxley models) that describe the membrane voltage as a function of the input current and the activation of ion channels. Mathematically simpler are integrate-and-fire models that describe the membrane voltage as a function of the input current and predict the spike times without a description of the biophysical processes that shape the time course of an action potential. Even more abstract models only predict output spikes (but not membrane voltage) as a function of the stimulation where the stimulation can occur through sensory input or pharmacologically. This article provides a short overview of different spiking neuron models and links, whenever possible to experimental phenomena. It includes deterministic and probabilistic models.
Non-spiking cells, spiking cells, and their measurement
Not all the cells of the nervous system produce the type of spike that define the scope of the spiking neuron models. For example, cochlear hair cells, retinal receptor cells, and retinal bipolar cells do not spike. Furthermore, many cells in the nervous system are not classified as neurons but instead are classified as glia.
Neuronal activity can be measured with different experimental techniques, such as the "Whole cell" measurement technique, which captures the spiking activity of a single neuron and produces full amplitude action potentials.
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Biological neuron model
Biological neuron models, also known as a spiking neuron models, are mathematical descriptions of the properties of certain cells in the nervous system that generate sharp electrical potentials across their cell membrane, roughly one millisecond in duration, called action potentials or spikes (Fig. 2). Since spikes are transmitted along the axon and synapses from the sending neuron to many other neurons, spiking neurons are considered to be a major information processing unit of the nervous system.
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Classical cable theory uses mathematical models to calculate the electric current (and accompanying voltage) along passive neurites, particularly the dendrites that receive synaptic inputs at different sites and times. Estimates are made by modeling dendrites and axons as cylinders composed of segments with capacitances and resistances combined in parallel (see Fig. 1). The capacitance of a neuronal fiber comes about because electrostatic forces are acting through the very thin lipid bilayer (see Figure 2).
Neural coding
Neural coding (or neural representation) is a neuroscience field concerned with characterising the hypothetical relationship between the stimulus and the individual or ensemble neuronal responses and the relationship among the electrical activity of the neurons in the ensemble. Based on the theory that sensory and other information is represented in the brain by networks of neurons, it is thought that neurons can encode both digital and analog information.
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