Modeling of Synchronization in Bushy Cells of Cochlear Nucleus

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Modeling of Synchronization in Bushy Cells of Cochlear Nucleus Marek Rudnicki1 and Werner Hemmert1* 1 Technische Universität München, Bio-Inspired Information Processing, Germany In the inner ear sounds are converted into action potentials and propagated to the central nervous system. The cochlear nucleus in the auditory brainstem is the first station that receives synaptic inputs from auditory nerve fibers (ANF) and consists of several neuron types. Here we focus on globular bushy cells (GBC) that are part of the sound localization pathway. One of the main properties of GBC is their excellent temporal firing precision in response to sounds.Our model of GBCs is a point neuron with Hodgkin-Huxley type ion channels (HPAC, Kht, Klt). It receives several excitatory inputs from an inner ear model simulating responses of ANFs. ANF activity drives endbulb of Held synapses located directly on the GBC soma. We modeled two types of synapses: with short-term depression as measured in many in-vitro studies (Yang and Xu-Friedman 2009) and without depression as reported by recent in-vivo studies (Borst 2010).The model is able to reproduce standard experiments involving pure tone stimulation. In particular the PSTH displays proper levels of spontaneous and driven rates as well as characteristic primary-like with notch shapes. Additionally, stimulation with low frequency tones shows improvement in synchronization that can be characterized as high-sync (SI > 0.9) according to Joris et al. (1994). Interestingly high entrainment levels where achieved only by the model without synaptic depression.In summary, our model is able to reproduce the key features of GBC responses. Our results suggest that depression in-vivo is much lower compared to in-vitro conditions. In the future, the model will allow us to study the response of GBCs to complex natural stimuli like speech. Acknowledgements This work was funded within BCCN Munich by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (reference number 01GQ0441). Keywords: computational neuroscience Conference: Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience, Berlin, Germany, 27 Sep - 1 Oct, 2010. Presentation Type: Presentation Topic: Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience Citation: Rudnicki M and Hemmert W (2010). Modeling of Synchronization in Bushy Cells of Cochlear Nucleus. Front. Comput. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Bernstein Conference on Computational Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.fncom.2010.51.00015 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 22 Sep 2010; Published Online: 23 Sep 2010. * Correspondence: Prof. Werner Hemmert, Technische Universität München, Bio-Inspired Information Processing, München, Germany, werner.hemmert@tum.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Marek Rudnicki Werner Hemmert Google Marek Rudnicki Werner Hemmert Google Scholar Marek Rudnicki Werner Hemmert PubMed Marek Rudnicki Werner Hemmert Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.