A novel theoretical framework for simultaneous measurement of excitatory and inhibitory conductances

• Main Authors: Beck, H. (Author), Elyasaf, G. (Author), Katz, Y. (Author), Lampl, I. (Author), Müller-Komorowska, D. (Author), Parabucki, A. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science 2021
• Subjects: action potential; Action Potentials; animal; Animals; Article; biological model; biology; CA1 Region, Hippocampal; Computational Biology; conceptual framework; controlled study; cytology; electrophysiology; Electrophysiology; frequency analysis; hippocampal CA1 region; membrane potential; Mice; Models, Neurological; mouse; nerve cell; nervous system conductance; Neurons; physiology; simulation; synapse; whole cell patch clamp
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 The firing of neurons throughout the brain is determined by the precise relations between excitatory and inhibitory inputs, and disruption of their balance underlies many psychiatric diseases. Whether or not these inputs covary over time or between repeated stimuli remains unclear due to the lack of experimental methods for measuring both inputs simultaneously. We developed a new analytical framework for instantaneous and simultaneous measurements of both the excitatory and inhibitory neuronal inputs during a single trial under current clamp recording. This can be achieved by injecting a current composed of two high frequency sinusoidal components followed by analytical extraction of the conductances. We demonstrate the ability of this method to measure both inputs in a single trial under realistic recording constraints and from morphologically realistic CA1 pyramidal model cells. Future experimental implementation of our new method will facilitate the understanding of fundamental questions about the health and disease of the nervous system. Copyright: © 2021 Müller-Komorowska et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.