Accession Number:

AD0653614

Title:

RESEARCH ON THE ANALOGICAL SIMULATION OF NEURAL BEHAVIOR.

Descriptive Note:

Final rept., 14 Apr 63-15 Apr 67,

Corporate Author:

GENERAL PRECISION INC GLENDALE CALIF LIBRASCOPE DIV

Personal Author(s):

Report Date:

1967-04-15

Pagination or Media Count:

42.0

Abstract:

The Hodgkin-Huxley descriptions of electrically excitable conductances are combined with the Eccles descriptions of synaptic conductances to provide the basis of an electronic analog of nerve-cell membrane. Studies with this analog reveal that the system of synaptic and electrically excitable conductances can easily be extended to account for many forms of neuronal behavior previously unexplained, including the following facilitation, antifacilitation and various forms of after effects in response to synaptic inputs the three basic forms of spontaneous neuronal potentials sinusoidal, sawtoothed and spikes and nonperiodic spike generation, such as the productions of spike pairs and multimodal spike-interval histograms. In addition, the analogs are used to explore interactions of spatially distributed neuronal processes including the effects of coupling an integrative region such as a soma to a spike-initiator region such as an axon Hillock, and the propagation of potentials along an axon. Among other things, these studies reveal mechanisms for resetting of the soma potential by invading spikes as well as many interesting phenomena associated with nonuniform conduction of voltage waveforms along an axon. Finally, the analogs are used to study the consequences of simple connections between two neurons. The significant results include the prediction of spike-burst formation in a mutually exciting pair of neurons, and the possibility of stable synchrony in a pair of independently driven mutually inhibiting neurons. Author

Descriptors:

Subject Categories:

  • Bionics

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE


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