Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

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.

Action Potentials

Action Potentials

Propagation of Action Potentials

Propagation of Action Potentials

The propagation of an action potential refers to the process by which a nerve impulse, or "action potential," travels along a neuron.
Neurons (nerve cells) have a resting membrane potential, with a slightly negative charge inside compared to outside. This is maintained by ion channels, such as sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+) channels, which control the flow of ions. When a stimulus, like a touch or a signal from another neuron, triggers the neuron, sodium channels open, allowing sodium ions to...

Integration of Synaptic Events

Integration of Synaptic Events

Synaptic integration mainly includes the summation of graded potentials. Graded potentials, regardless of their type, cause subtle alterations in membrane voltage, resulting in either depolarization or hyperpolarization. These incremental changes, when combined or summed, can propel the neuron toward its threshold. Consider, for example, a membrane experiencing a +15 mV shift, causing it to depolarize from -70 mV to -55 mV. In this scenario, graded potentials govern the membrane's ability to...

Graded Potential

Graded Potential

Graded potentials are localized fluctuations in the cell membrane's electrical charge, commonly found in the dendrites of neurons. The magnitude of these potential changes depends on the strength of the initiating stimulus. In a membrane at its resting potential, a graded potential signifies a voltage shift either above -70 mV or below -70 mV.
Graded potentials fall into two categories: depolarizing and hyperpolarizing. Depolarizing graded potentials typically occur when sodium (Na+) or calcium...

Resting Potential Decay

Resting Potential Decay

The resting membrane potential of a neuron (-70mV) is sustained due to the selective ion permeability of the membrane. At the resting potential, the membrane is slightly permeable to ions like sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl−) and highly permeable to potassium ions (K+). Differences in the ions' concentration inside the cell compared to the outside are maintained by membrane transport proteins like channels and pumps.
At rest, the K+ is the main ion that moves across the membrane through...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Unraveling the geometry of visual relational reasoning.

Scientific reports·2026

Same author

Order parameters and phase transitions of continual learning in deep neural networks.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same author

Interactions between long- and short-term synaptic plasticity transform temporal neural representations into spatial.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2025

Same author

Coding schemes in neural networks learning classification tasks.

Nature communications·2025

Same author

Random compressed coding with neurons.

Cell reports·2025

Same author

Unraveling the Geometry of Visual Relational Reasoning.

ArXiv·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Using Neuron Spiking Activity to Trigger Closed-Loop Stimuli in Neurophysiological Experiments

Using Neuron Spiking Activity to Trigger Closed-Loop Stimuli in Neurophysiological Experiments

Published on: November 12, 2019

Stimulus-dependent correlations in threshold-crossing spiking neurons.

Yoram Burak¹, Sam Lewallen, Haim Sompolinsky

¹Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. yburak@fas.harvard.edu

Neural Computation

|May 5, 2009

Summary

This study models neuronal activity using a threshold-crossing process. Neurons with lower thresholds tend to fire first, even with identical inputs, revealing asymmetric spike train correlations.

More Related Videos

Electrophysiological and Morphological Characterization of Neuronal Microcircuits in Acute Brain Slices Using Paired Patch-Clamp Recordings

Electrophysiological and Morphological Characterization of Neuronal Microcircuits in Acute Brain Slices Using Paired Patch-Clamp Recordings

Published on: January 10, 2015

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

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Using Neuron Spiking Activity to Trigger Closed-Loop Stimuli in Neurophysiological Experiments

Using Neuron Spiking Activity to Trigger Closed-Loop Stimuli in Neurophysiological Experiments

Published on: November 12, 2019

Electrophysiological and Morphological Characterization of Neuronal Microcircuits in Acute Brain Slices Using Paired Patch-Clamp Recordings

Electrophysiological and Morphological Characterization of Neuronal Microcircuits in Acute Brain Slices Using Paired Patch-Clamp Recordings

Published on: January 10, 2015

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:

Computational Neuroscience
Neural Dynamics

Background:

Neuronal populations exhibit complex activity patterns.
Understanding spike train correlations is crucial for neural coding.

Purpose of the Study:

To model neuronal population activity using a threshold-crossing spiking process.
To analyze cross-correlations in spike trains of neurons with varying thresholds.

Main Methods:

Developed a threshold-crossing spiking model for neuronal activity.
Assumed common Gaussian-distributed fluctuating input for model neurons.
Evaluated cross-correlation functions for pairs of neurons with different thresholds.

Main Results:

Identified asymmetric temporal cross-correlation functions.
Demonstrated a tendency for lower-threshold neurons to fire before higher-threshold neurons.
Observed qualitative similarities between threshold-crossing model correlations and integrate-and-fire model bursting.

Conclusions:

The threshold-crossing model offers a simple, analytically tractable approach to describe event onsets in neurons.
This model provides insights into spike statistics and cross-correlations, particularly in bursting phenomena.
Findings are relevant to understanding neural activity, such as in retinal ganglion cells.