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Postsynaptic Potential (PSP)

Postsynaptic Potential (PSP)

Postsynaptic potential (PSP) refers to a change in the electrical potential of a neuron when neurotransmitters released by presynaptic neurons bind to postsynaptic receptors. This potential can either be excitatory, leading to depolarization and ultimately action potential generation, or inhibitory, leading to hyperpolarization and suppression of the postsynaptic neuron.
There are two types of receptors: ionotropic and metabotropic.
The ionotropic receptor is the membrane protein that has an...

The Role of Ion Channels in Neuronal Computation

The Role of Ion Channels in Neuronal Computation

A postsynaptic neuron usually receives numerous impulses from several other presynaptic neurons. The axon hillock of the postsynaptic neuron integrates all these signals and determines the likelihood of firing an action potential.
Sometimes a single EPSP is strong enough to induce an action potential in the postsynaptic neuron. However, multiple presynaptic inputs must often create EPSPs around the same time for the postsynaptic neuron to be sufficiently depolarized to fire an action potential.

Neuronal Communication

Neuronal Communication

Neurons, the fundamental units of the brain and nervous system, communicate through complex electrochemical signals that underpin all cognitive and bodily functions. This communication is primarily facilitated by a process involving the generation and propagation of an action potential along the axon of the neuron. When the internal electrical charge of a neuron surpasses a certain threshold, an action potential is triggered. This rapid change in voltage travels swiftly along the axon to the...

Synaptic Signaling

Synaptic Signaling

Neurons communicate at synapses, or junctions, to excite or inhibit the activity of other neurons or target cells, such as muscles. Synapses may be chemical or electrical.
Most synapses are chemical, meaning an electrical impulse or action potential spurs the release of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. The neuron sending the signal is called the presynaptic neuron, and the neuron receiving the signal is the postsynaptic neuron.
The presynaptic neuron fires an action potential that...

Synaptic Signaling

Synaptic Signaling

Neurons communicate at synapses, or junctions, to excite or inhibit the activity of other neurons or target cells, such as muscles. Synapses may be chemical or electrical.

Neural Circuits

Neural Circuits

Neural circuits and neuronal pools are two of the main structures found in the nervous system. Neural circuits are networks of neurons that work together to carry out a specific task or process. They consist of interconnected neurons and glial cells, which provide structural and metabolic support.
Neuronal pools are collections of nerve cells with similar functions and interact through chemical and electrical signals. These pools include both interneurons (the central neural circuit nodes that...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Real-time Electrophysiology: Using Closed-loop Protocols to Probe Neuronal Dynamics and Beyond

Real-time Electrophysiology: Using Closed-loop Protocols to Probe Neuronal Dynamics and Beyond

Published on: June 24, 2015

Neural populations can induce reliable postsynaptic currents without observable spike rate changes or precise spike

Bryan Tripp¹, Chris Eliasmith

¹Departments of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)

|October 18, 2006

Summary

Brain neurons can use irregular firing patterns to transmit complex information. This study shows how even variable spike timing can robustly encode messages, extending population coding to the temporal domain.

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Optical Recording of Suprathreshold Neural Activity with Single-cell and Single-spike Resolution

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Published on: September 5, 2012

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Last Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Real-time Electrophysiology: Using Closed-loop Protocols to Probe Neuronal Dynamics and Beyond

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Published on: June 24, 2015

A Procedure for Implanting Organized Arrays of Microwires for Single-unit Recordings in Awake, Behaving Animals

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Published on: February 14, 2014

Optical Recording of Suprathreshold Neural Activity with Single-cell and Single-spike Resolution

Optical Recording of Suprathreshold Neural Activity with Single-cell and Single-spike Resolution

Published on: September 5, 2012

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Computational Neuroscience
Computational Biology

Background:

Neural firing patterns are often irregular, with spike timing containing information beyond average rates.
The computational capacity of neural circuits to utilize this temporal information is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether neural circuits can exploit fine temporal firing patterns for computation.
To determine the conditions under which irregular neural firing can reliably transmit information.

Main Methods:

Utilized computational modeling to simulate neuronal ensembles.
Analyzed the impact of different firing patterns (uniform vs. irregular/Poisson-like) on postsynaptic current patterns.

Main Results:

Demonstrated that ensembles firing at a constant mean rate can induce specific temporal current patterns in postsynaptic cells.
Showed that irregular, Poisson-like firing robustly drives these current patterns despite significant trial-to-trial spike timing variations.
Identified that even highly variable firing, requiring hundreds of trials to discern from random, can still encode useful information.

Conclusions:

Established that postsynaptic cells can exploit virtually any information encoded in spike timing under unrestrictive conditions.
Proposed that this capability may facilitate an extension of population coding into the temporal domain.