MARCS Research Seminar

Dr Yossi Buskila from the BENS research program in the MARCS Institute will be presenting: “Dendritic delay adaptation in spiking neurons.”

Abstract: Neurons in the brain use action potentials (spikes) to communicate with each other. In the postsynaptic cell, these spikes are propagated through the dendrites and finally summed at the site of spike initiation. In recent years, several studies have reported large variability of spike propagation delays in networks of neurons processing these signals, and it is thought that these delays are modulated to enhance signal integration and thus optimize certain inputs. Computational studies refer to the spike propagation delays as storage capacity units, and predict that the neuronal network use these delays to time signals and encode information. How these propagation delays are controlled and processed in cortical neurons is yet to be determined. We are using multisite patch clamp recordings and photostimulation techniques to study the effect of different physiological stimuli on spike propagation delays in both single and neuronal networks.