Action potential and bursting phenomena using analog electrical neuron

Abstract

A neuron or nerve cell has passive components due to resistive-capacitive nature of circuitry and active current components contributed by ion channels. Biophysical neurons represent active and passive components by differential equations. The differential equations of the biophysical model were integrated by making arithmetic operations on voltage model circuits. Analog neuronal model using voltage integrator circuits is the main focus of this paper. The work involves two circuit models and also addresses design and passive properties of analog neuron model along with the effects of Na+ and K+ ionic channels. In the first simpler circuit, an action potential was generated. In the enhanced second model, sodium and potassium currents were generated separately along with action potential. Impacts of noise and various geometrical signals on the action potential and ionic channels were studied to analyze the effects of membrane resistance and capacitance changes in membrane potential and ionic channels. Besides its use in neuromorphic network research, the model has been successfully in virtual labs and for teaching practice.