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Differential polarization of cortical pyramidal neuron dendrites through weak extracellular fields
The rise of transcranial current stimulation (tCS) techniques have sparked an increasing interest in the effects of weak extracellular electric fields on neural activity. These fields modulate ongoing neural activity through polarization of the neuronal membrane. While the somatic polarization has b...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5955601/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29727454 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006124 |
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author | Aspart, Florian Remme, Michiel W. H. Obermayer, Klaus |
author_facet | Aspart, Florian Remme, Michiel W. H. Obermayer, Klaus |
author_sort | Aspart, Florian |
collection | PubMed |
description | The rise of transcranial current stimulation (tCS) techniques have sparked an increasing interest in the effects of weak extracellular electric fields on neural activity. These fields modulate ongoing neural activity through polarization of the neuronal membrane. While the somatic polarization has been investigated experimentally, the frequency-dependent polarization of the dendritic trees in the presence of alternating (AC) fields has received little attention yet. Using a biophysically detailed model with experimentally constrained active conductances, we analyze the subthreshold response of cortical pyramidal cells to weak AC fields, as induced during tCS. We observe a strong frequency resonance around 10-20 Hz in the apical dendrites sensitivity to polarize in response to electric fields but not in the basal dendrites nor the soma. To disentangle the relative roles of the cell morphology and active and passive membrane properties in this resonance, we perform a thorough analysis using simplified models, e.g. a passive pyramidal neuron model, simple passive cables and reconstructed cell model with simplified ion channels. We attribute the origin of the resonance in the apical dendrites to (i) a locally increased sensitivity due to the morphology and to (ii) the high density of h-type channels. Our systematic study provides an improved understanding of the subthreshold response of cortical cells to weak electric fields and, importantly, allows for an improved design of tCS stimuli. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5955601 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-59556012018-05-25 Differential polarization of cortical pyramidal neuron dendrites through weak extracellular fields Aspart, Florian Remme, Michiel W. H. Obermayer, Klaus PLoS Comput Biol Research Article The rise of transcranial current stimulation (tCS) techniques have sparked an increasing interest in the effects of weak extracellular electric fields on neural activity. These fields modulate ongoing neural activity through polarization of the neuronal membrane. While the somatic polarization has been investigated experimentally, the frequency-dependent polarization of the dendritic trees in the presence of alternating (AC) fields has received little attention yet. Using a biophysically detailed model with experimentally constrained active conductances, we analyze the subthreshold response of cortical pyramidal cells to weak AC fields, as induced during tCS. We observe a strong frequency resonance around 10-20 Hz in the apical dendrites sensitivity to polarize in response to electric fields but not in the basal dendrites nor the soma. To disentangle the relative roles of the cell morphology and active and passive membrane properties in this resonance, we perform a thorough analysis using simplified models, e.g. a passive pyramidal neuron model, simple passive cables and reconstructed cell model with simplified ion channels. We attribute the origin of the resonance in the apical dendrites to (i) a locally increased sensitivity due to the morphology and to (ii) the high density of h-type channels. Our systematic study provides an improved understanding of the subthreshold response of cortical cells to weak electric fields and, importantly, allows for an improved design of tCS stimuli. Public Library of Science 2018-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC5955601/ /pubmed/29727454 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006124 Text en © 2018 Aspart et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Aspart, Florian Remme, Michiel W. H. Obermayer, Klaus Differential polarization of cortical pyramidal neuron dendrites through weak extracellular fields |
title | Differential polarization of cortical pyramidal neuron dendrites through weak extracellular fields |
title_full | Differential polarization of cortical pyramidal neuron dendrites through weak extracellular fields |
title_fullStr | Differential polarization of cortical pyramidal neuron dendrites through weak extracellular fields |
title_full_unstemmed | Differential polarization of cortical pyramidal neuron dendrites through weak extracellular fields |
title_short | Differential polarization of cortical pyramidal neuron dendrites through weak extracellular fields |
title_sort | differential polarization of cortical pyramidal neuron dendrites through weak extracellular fields |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5955601/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29727454 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006124 |
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