INVESTIGADORES
MEDAN Violeta
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
A computational model on the goldfish Mauthner cell
Autor/es:
MÄKI-MARTTUNEN, TUOMO; MEDAN, VIOLETA
Lugar:
Huerta Grande, Cordoba
Reunión:
Congreso; Resumenes del XXVIII Congreso de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2013
Institución organizadora:
Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias
Resumen:
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.