CW1: Model of a Single Neuron

COMS30127: Computational Neuroscience

Lee Archer
May 6, 2015

V [mV]

Part 1

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Integrate & Fire Neuron Simulation

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t [ms]

Figure 1: Simulation of a single Integrate & Fire neuron using Eulers method.

Part 2
a)
V (t) = EL + Rm Ie + [V (0) EL Rm Ie ]e m
t
lim e m = 0 V = E + R I
t

th

m e

(1)
(2)

Vth EL
(3)
Rm
The minimum value of Ie required to reach the threshold value Vth is obtained by rearranging equation (2)
to make Ie the subject (3) and substituting Vth = 40, EL = 70, Rm = 10 from the simulation parameters
of Part 1.
40 (70)
30
Ie =
=
=3
(4)
10
10
t
However, using Ie = 3 would never produce a spike as the term e m will slowly approach zero but never
actually reach it. In order for V (t) to reach the threshold value Vth , Ie needs to be slightly bigger than 3.
Ie =

Integrate & Fire Neuron Simulation

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Firing rate [Hz]

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Figure 2: Simulation with Ie = 2.9 [nA] (0.1 [nA]

lower than the minimum Ie required to spike).

Firing Rates of an Integrate & Fire Neuron

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2.0

2.5

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Current - Ie [nA]

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Figure 3: Firing rates of different neurons with

Ie [2, 5] in steps of 0.1.

b)
Figure 2 shows that when the value of the current is below the minimum current required to spike the neuron
will reach a voltage just below the threshold and never spike.

Part 3
Calculating the firing rates of neurons with different values of input current confirms the result found in
Part 2a. In Figure 3 neurons with Ie < 3 have firing rates of 0 which means they never spike. This can also
be seen in Figure 2 with Ie = 2.9.

Part 4
Figure 4a shows the voltages in two excitatory neurons that are have synaptic connections between each
other. It is clear that after some period of time the spikes synchronise. This happens because when one
neuron spikes it results in an increased voltage in the next neuron, causing it to reach the threshold for
spiking sooner. With each spike the difference in the timing of spikes in the two neurons gets smaller and
smaller until they start firing at the same time.
In a similar configuration with inhibitory neurons as shown in Figure 4b the time between the firing of
the two neurons increased and remained constant. Whenever an inhibitory neuron fires it leads to a decrease
in the voltage of the next neuron and thus delays its spike.

Part 5
A slow potassium current was added to the neuron simulation from Part 1. The results can be seen in
Figure 5.

Two Inhibitory Integrate & Fire Neurons Simulation

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Neuron A (20 spikes)

Neuron B (21 spikes)

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Two Excitatory Integrate & Fire Neurons Simulation

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Neuron A (18 spikes)

Neuron B (18 spikes)

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(b) Inhibitory neurons. Es = 80[mV ]

(a) Excitatory neurons. Es = 0[mV ]

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Figure 4: Voltage in each neuron. The synaptic current is given by Is = Gs Pmax e s (Es V ) where V is
the voltage of the pre-synaptic neuron that caused it to spike and t is the time since the spike.

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Integrate & Fire Neuron with Potassium Current

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Figure 5: Integrate & Fire neuron simulation with a slow potassium current.