Biochemical Mechanisms of Dendritic Nonlinearities and their Application into Computational Models

Abstract

While dendritic spines make up only a small portion of the entire neuronal system, multiple intracellular mechanisms are localized to these points to trigger unique signaling pathways. Biochemical interactions of membrane channels, intracellular protein cascades, and spine morphologies all give rise to nonlinear mechanisms of signal transduction. Large branch summation events, in which multiple incoming signals are integrated towards the soma, are mediated by these mechanisms. Information on this topic is utilized within computational studies to create accurate pyramidal neural networks. However, the methods to incorporate these nonlinear mechanisms into programs can be thoroughly debated. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of current approaches that incorporate nonlinear signal transduction into neuronal models.