A computational model on the goldfish Mauthner cell

MÄKI-MARTTUNEN, TUOMO; MEDAN, VIOLETA

Huerta Grande, Córdoba

Congreso; XXVIII CONGRESO ANUAL DE LA SOCIEDAD ARGENTINA DE INVESTIGACION EN NEUROCIENCIAS & Reunión satélite sobre Neurobiología del Comportamiento: ?NeuroetologÍa y Neurobiología de la Memoria en el cono sur? Un homenaje a Héctor Maldonado; 2013

Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias

Integration of multimodal information is of key importance to generate adaptive behavior. However, our understanding of how multimodal integration is implemented at the dendritic level is still scant. We address this question in the Mauthner-cell, the ?decision making element? of the startle escape network of goldfish. The Mauthner-cell has two main dendritic branches, lateral and ventral, where the former receives auditory input and the latter input from the visual system. Both dendrites are amenable to intracellular recording in vivo. Here, we used a Hodgkin-Huxley type of model with three voltage-gated ionic channels (one Na+ and two K+ channels) combined with an approximate model of the cell morphology to describe the cell behavior. We fitted the model parameters to intracellular recordings using two types of data: 1) Square pulses injected intracellularly at soma, and responses measured at the proximal lateral dendrite, and 2) Short excitatory pulses injected extracellularly at distal parts of the axon to induce an antidromic action potential, measured at the soma and several different locations along the dendrites. This model provides a simulation framework for testing the cell response to electrical input. Moreover, it will allow us to explore the conditions for successful signal propagation in the cell, such as determining whether purely passive dendrites are enough to explain its electrical behavior or if voltage-gated ion channels are necessary to describe it.