QLS/CAMBAM Seminar - Dr. Anmar Khadra

Excitability in Cerebellar Stellate Cells: From Latency to Runup

Anmar Khadra

McGill University

Our recent work has shown that inhibitory cerebellar stellate cells, involved in motor control, alter their excitability over time after patch-clamping them. They do so by increasing their excitability over time (runup) and by exhibiting peculiar biphasic latency profile (latency to first spike). This is achieved through modifying the kinetics of certain ion channels expressed on the membrane of these neurons. Using mathematical modeling techniques, we identified what these ion channels are and how their kinetics are modified. In this talk, I will present a model of stellate cells that explains these outcomes and show that these neurons are type 1 oscillators possessing a SNIC bifurcation. I will also illustrate how we used dynamical systems approaches to explain the runup phenomenon in excitability, the biphasic profile in latency and the transient single spiking associated with the SNIC.