Biomedical subjects

Mathilde Badoual

Publications and source records attributed to Mathilde Badoual.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Biophysical and phenomenological models of multiple spike interactions in spike-timing dependent plasticity.

Spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP) is a form of associative synaptic modification which depends on the respective timing of pre- and post-synaptic spikes. The biophysical mechanisms underlying this form of plasticity are currently not known. We present here a biophysical model which captures the characteristics of STDP, such as its frequency dependency, and the effects of spike pair or spike triplet interactions. We also make links with other well-known plasticity rules. A simplified phenomenological model is also derived, which should be useful for fast numerical simulation and analytical investigation of the impact of STDP at the network level.

Action Potentials↗

PubMed2004

A method to estimate synaptic conductances from membrane potential fluctuations.

In neocortical neurons, network activity can activate a large number of synaptic inputs, resulting in highly irregular subthreshold membrane potential (V(m)) fluctuations, commonly called "synaptic noise." This activity contains information about the underlying network dynamics, but it is not easy to extract network properties from such complex and irregular activity. Here, we propose a method to estimate properties of network activity from intracellular recordings and test this method using theoretical and experimental approaches. The method is based on the analytic expression of the subthreshold V(m) distribution at steady state in conductance-based models. Fitting this analytic expression to V(m) distributions obtained from intracellular recordings provides estimates of the mean and variance of excitatory and inhibitory conductances. We test the accuracy of these estimates against computational models of increasing complexity. We also test the method using dynamic-clamp recordings of neocortical neurons in vitro. By using an on-line analysis procedure, we show that the measured conductances from spontaneous network activity can be used to re-create artificial states equivalent to real network activity. This approach should be applicable to intracellular recordings during different network states in vivo, providing a characterization of the global properties of synaptic conductances and possible insight into the underlying network mechanisms.

Electricity↗

PubMed2003

Barrages of synaptic activity control the gain and sensitivity of cortical neurons.

Ongoing synaptic activity, ever present in cortical neurons, may vary widely in its amplitude and characteristics, potentially having a strong influence on neuronal processing. Intracellular recordings in layer 5 pyramidal cells in prefrontal and visual cortical slices maintained in vitro revealed spontaneous periods of synaptic bombardment. Testing the responsiveness of these cortical cells to synaptic inputs or the injection of artificial excitatory postsynaptic conductances of various amplitudes revealed that background synaptic activity dramatically increased the probability of response to small inputs, decreased the slope of the input-output curve, and decreased both the latency and jitter of action potential activation. Examining the effects of different components of synaptic barrages (namely, depolarization, increase in membrane conductance, and increase in membrane potential variance) revealed that the effects observed were dominated by the membrane depolarization and increase in variance. Depolarization increased the peak cross-correlation between injected complex in vivo-like waveforms through enhancement of responsiveness to small inputs, whereas increases in variance did so through a shift in firing mode from one of threshold detection to probabilistic discharge. These results indicate that rapid increases in neuronal responsiveness, as well as increases in spike timing precision, can be achieved through balanced barrages of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic activity.

Action Potentials↗

PubMed2003

Kinesin motion in the absence of external forces characterized by interference total internal reflection microscopy.

We study the motion of the kinesin molecular motor along microtubules using interference total internal reflection microscopy. This technique achieves nanometer scale resolution together with a fast time response. We describe the first in vitro observation of kinesin stepping at high ATP concentration in the absence of an external load, where the 8-nm step can be clearly distinguished. The short-time resolution allows us to measure the time constant related to the relative motion of the bead-motor connection; we deduce the associated bead-motor elastic modulus.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗

PubMed2003

Persistent cortical activity: mechanisms of generation and effects on neuronal excitability.

Local cortical networks in the prefrontal cortex and visual cortex are capable of spontaneously generating sustained activity for periods of seconds or longer. This sustained activity is generated through recurrent excitation between pyramidal cells that is controlled by feedback inhibition and can have both a rapid onset and a rapid offset. The period of activity is associated with a marked increase in neuronal responsiveness to the intracellular injection of current pulses, especially those of smaller amplitude. Independently mimicking the depolarization, increase in membrane conductance and increase in noise associated with sustained activity revealed that the depolarization is largely responsible for the increase in neuronal responsiveness, although an increase in membrane noise also facilitates responses to small inputs. These results indicate that the persistent activity associated with the performance of working memory tasks may be generated largely through recurrent networks. They also suggest that feedback pathways, such as those involved in selective attention, may exert a powerful influence on neuronal responsiveness through synaptic bombardment.

Action Potentials↗