Spontaneous action potentials and neural coding in unmyelinated axons

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...

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Main Authors: O'Donnell, Cian, van Rossum, Mark C.W.
Format: Article
Published: MIT Press 2015
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49635/
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author O'Donnell, Cian
van Rossum, Mark C.W.
author_facet O'Donnell, Cian
van Rossum, Mark C.W.
author_sort O'Donnell, Cian
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description 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.
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spelling nottingham-496352020-05-04T17:05:47Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49635/ Spontaneous action potentials and neural coding in unmyelinated axons O'Donnell, Cian van Rossum, Mark C.W. 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. MIT Press 2015-04-30 Article PeerReviewed O'Donnell, Cian and van Rossum, Mark C.W. (2015) Spontaneous action potentials and neural coding in unmyelinated axons. Neural Computation, 27 (4). pp. 801-818. ISSN 1530-888X https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/10.1162/NECO_a_00705 doi:10.1162/NECO_a_00705 doi:10.1162/NECO_a_00705
spellingShingle O'Donnell, Cian
van Rossum, Mark C.W.
Spontaneous action potentials and neural coding in unmyelinated axons
title Spontaneous action potentials and neural coding in unmyelinated axons
title_full Spontaneous action potentials and neural coding in unmyelinated axons
title_fullStr Spontaneous action potentials and neural coding in unmyelinated axons
title_full_unstemmed Spontaneous action potentials and neural coding in unmyelinated axons
title_short Spontaneous action potentials and neural coding in unmyelinated axons
title_sort spontaneous action potentials and neural coding in unmyelinated axons
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49635/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49635/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49635/