Synaptic equalization by anti-STDP

Abstract

Experimental evidence has shown that in some neuron types, such as hippocampal CA1 neurons, distally generated excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) are scaled up in amplitude compared to more proximally generated EPSPs such that EPSP magnitudes at the soma are approximately equal regardless of the dendritic location of origin. Using an equivalent cable model neuron, we show that a particular form of spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) called anti-STDP is capable of achieving this synaptic equalization. Anti-STDP equalizes synapses through the equalization of synaptic efficacies. We show this result for both a passive dendritic cable and for a cable containing a dendritic spike-initiation zone.