Mechanism for neuronal spike generation by small and large ion channel clusters

Neuronal action potentials are generated by clusters of ion channels between the Hillock and the first segment. If the clusters comprise a large number of sodium and potassium channels, action potentials are generated if the membrane potential exceeds a threshold of about -55 mV. Such behavior is well described by an excitable model such as, for example, the Hodgkin-Huxley equations. In this paper we show through stochastic modeling that if the size of the generating ion channel cluster is small, action potentials are generated regardless of whether the membrane potential is below or above the excitation threshold. Action potential generation is then determined by single-channel kinetics. We further show that this switch in generation mechanism manifests itself in peculiar statistical properties of the generated spike trains at small cluster sizes.