exp-decay-models

find conductance-based models that satisfy exponential decay in firing rate

Definitions

Firing rate is defined as the instantaneous estimate of the number of spikes per unit time (usually measured in Hertz). Gain is the instantaneous change in firing rate over time (the derivative of firing rate with respect to time). A cell is tonically-firing when its firing rate is near-constant for a constant injected current.

Targets

We are looking for model cells with the following property:

When moving between two tonically-firing regimes, the firing rate increases or decreases at an exponential rate. Thus, we are interested in transition-state dynamics between two steady-state tonically-firing regimes.

Cells that meet this criterion must then have a dynamic range of possible firing rates in tonic-firing regimes. We are not necessarily concerned with cells that are type I excitable with near-linear F-I characteristics, but that might be a reasonable place to start.

First-Pass

A reasonable first step then would be to identify model cells with the following properties:

1. They are single-compartment cells.
2. They have a minimal number of conductances.
3. They are biologically-plausible thalamocortical or hippocampal cells.
4. Their F-I characteristic is continuous, monotonically-increasing, and has a sufficient dynamic range (i.e. is not flat).

With regard to (1), (2), and (3), Dextexhe et al. 1994, Traub et al. 1991, Giovannini et al. 2015, Jochems & Yoshida 2015, and Soplata et al. 2017 are probably good places to start.

Second-Pass

Within this subset of models, we should identify models which exponentially increase in firing rate during transition periods.