Different roles of related currents in fast and slow spiking of model neurons from two phyla

Neuronal activity arises from the interplay of membrane and synaptic currents. Although many channel proteins conducting these currents are phylogenetically conserved, channels of the same type in different animals can have different voltage dependencies and dynamics. What does this mean for our ability to derive rules about the role of different types of ion channels in neuronal activity? Can results about the role of a particular channel type in a particular type of neuron be generalized to other neuron types? We compare spiking model neurons in two databases constructed by exploring the maximal conductance spaces of two models. The first is a model of crustacean stomatogastric neurons, and the second is a model of rodent thalamocortical neurons, but both models contain similar types of membrane currents. Spiking neurons in both databases show distinct fast and slow subpopulations, but our analysis reveals that related currents play different roles in fast and slow spiking in the stomatogastric versus thalamocortical neurons. This analysis involved conductance-space visualization and comparison of voltage traces, current traces, and frequency-current relationships from all spiker subpopulations. Our results are consistent with previous work indicating that the role a membrane current plays in shaping a neuron's behavior depends on the voltage dependence and dynamics of that current and may be different in different neuron types depending on the properties of other currents it is interacting with. Conclusions about the function of a type of membrane current based on experiments or simulations in one type of neuron may therefore not generalize to other neuron types.