Temporal sub units in dendritic trees

Abstract

This simulation study examines the possibility that dendritic sub units can be defined according to temporal aspects in the timing of populations of synaptic inputs. A two cell model with passive dendritic trees is used, which is subject to both common and independent synaptic inputs, the presence of common synaptic input results in a tendency for correlated firing in the two cell model. The strength of this correlation is used to measure the efficacy of the common synaptic inputs in modulating the output discharge of each neurone. Our results suggest that a small fraction of the total synaptic input can effectively modulate the timing of output spikes, this phenomenon is not dependent on the physical location of the inputs on the dendritic tree. This phenomenon depends on the presence of temporal correlation between the pre-synaptic spike trains that provide the common input. We propose to refer to these as temporal sub units.