An investigation of dendritic delay in octopus cells of the mammalian cochlear nucleus

MJ Spencer; DB Grayden; IC Bruce; H Meffn; AN Burkitt

Journal article

An investigation of dendritic delay in octopus cells of the mammalian cochlear nucleus

MJ Spencer, DB Grayden, IC Bruce, H Meffn, AN Burkitt

Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience | FRONTIERS RES FOUND | Published : 2012

DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2012.00083

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Abstract

Octopus cells, located in the mammalian auditory brainstem, receive their excitatory synaptic input ex- clusively from auditory nerve fibers. They respond with accurately timed spikes but are broadly tuned for sound frequency. Since the representation of information in the auditory nerve is well understood, it is possible to pose a number of questions about the relationship between the intrinsic electrophysiology, dendritic morphology, synaptic connectivity, and the ultimate functional role of octopus cells in the brainstem. This study employed a multi-compartmental Hodgkin-Huxley model to determine whether dendritic delay in octopus cells improves synaptic input coincidence detection in oct..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Martin Spencer Author

David Grayden Author

Hamish Meffin Author

Anthony Burkitt Author

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

Michael Eager provided assistance with "NEURON" software. We also wish to thank two reviewers for their contribution. Martin J. Spencer acknowledges postgraduate scholarships from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC - 567164) and National Information and Communication Technology Australia (NICTA). The work was supported by the Australian Research Council (DP1094830). NICTA is funded by the Australian Government as represented by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and the Australian Research Council through the ICT Centre of Excellence program. The Bionics Institute acknowledges the support it receives from the Victorian Government through its Operational Infrastructure Support Program.