Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Feedback Inhibition00:46

Feedback Inhibition

Biochemical reactions are occurring constantly in cells, converting starting substances to different products, usually with the help of enzymes that speed the reactions. Without enzymes, it would take far too long for most reactions to occur to be useful to the cell!
Sound Waves: Interference00:53

Sound Waves: Interference

Sound waves can be modeled either as longitudinal waves, wherein the molecules of the medium oscillate around an equilibrium position, or as pressure waves. When two identical waves from the same source superimpose on each other, the combination of two crests or two troughs results in amplitude reinforcement known as constructive interference. If two identical waves, that are initially in phase, become out of phase because of different path lengths, the combination of crests with troughs...
Excitatory and Inhibitory Effects of Neurotransmitters01:29

Excitatory and Inhibitory Effects of Neurotransmitters

When an action potential reaches the presynaptic axon terminal, it releases neurotransmitters from the neuron into the synaptic cleft at a chemical synapse. The released neurotransmitter can be excitatory or inhibitory. The critical criteria commonly used to determine whether a molecule is a neurotransmitter at a chemical synapse are the molecule's presence in the presynaptic neuron. Second, its release is in response to strong presynaptic depolarization. And lastly, the presence of specific...
Ligand-Gated Ion Channel Receptor: Gating Mechanism01:30

Ligand-Gated Ion Channel Receptor: Gating Mechanism

Ligand-gated ion channels are transmembrane proteins that play a vital role in intercellular communication and functions of the nervous system. They allow the influx of ions across the membrane once the neurotransmitter binds, allowing the subsequent transmission of electrical excitation across the neurons. Other ligand-gated ion channels, like the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor, permit anions like chloride into the cells on the binding of the GABA molecule. Their entry into the cell...
Eukaryotic Transcription Inhibitors01:52

Eukaryotic Transcription Inhibitors

Certain biochemical processes, such as embryonic development and cell growth regulation, depend on the repression of specific genes. DNA binding proteins known as eukaryotic transcription inhibitors regulate the repression of gene expression in eukaryotes. The presence of these inhibitors at the required location and time in the cell is triggered by the presence of hormones and additional signals from other cells.
Eukaryotic transcription inhibitors usually contain two distinct domains, a DNA...
Negative and Positive Feedback01:18

Negative and Positive Feedback

Animal organs and organ systems constantly adjust to internal and external changes through a process called homeostasis ("steady state"). Examples of these changes include regulation of the level of glucose or calcium in the blood or internal responses to external temperatures. Homeostasis requires  maintaining an internal dynamic equilibrium:

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by
Same author

A biologically plausible decision-making model based on interacting neural populations.

PloS one·2026
Same author

Convergent transcriptomic and connectomic controllers of information integration and its anaesthetic breakdown across mammalian brains.

Nature human behaviour·2026
Same author

Convergent information flows explain recurring firing patterns in cerebral cortex.

Nature neuroscience·2025
Same author

A unified model library maps how neuromodulation reshapes the excitability landscape of neurons across the brain.

PLoS computational biology·2025
Same author

Cortical modulation by exogenous electric fields is consistent with electric dipoles.

Neuroscience·2025
Same author

Transcranial direct current stimulation modulates primate brain dynamics across states of consciousness.

eLife·2025
Same journal

Effects of ethanol leaf extract of <i>Spondias mombin</i> on scopolamine-induced hippocampal neurodegeneration in adult male Wistar rats: evidence from behavioral, biochemical, histological, and immunohistochemical analyses.

Frontiers in cellular neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Ferroptosis in intracerebral hemorrhage: a bibliometric overview of mechanisms and future directions.

Frontiers in cellular neuroscience·2026
Same journal

<i>Scn2a</i>, encoding Na <sub><i>V</i></sub> 1.2 channel, contributes to tonotopic maturation of spike kinetics in developing mouse MNTB.

Frontiers in cellular neuroscience·2026
Same journal

From cellular heterogeneity to precision medicine: single-cell multi-omics in CNS disease research.

Frontiers in cellular neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Mesenchymal stromal/stem cells for neurological disorders in humans: an evidence-mapped clinical review.

Frontiers in cellular neuroscience·2026
Same journal

A new framework for nicotinic receptor-targeted therapeutic strategies in psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.

Frontiers in cellular neuroscience·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Stochastic Noise Application for the Assessment of Medial Vestibular Nucleus Neuron Sensitivity In Vitro
06:22

Stochastic Noise Application for the Assessment of Medial Vestibular Nucleus Neuron Sensitivity In Vitro

Published on: August 28, 2019

Inhibitory "noise".

Alain Destexhe1

  • 1Unité de Neurosciences, Infomation et Complexité, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Gif-sur-Yvette, France.

Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience
|April 22, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

In high-conductance states, inhibitory fluctuations, not excitation, primarily drive cortical neuron spiking activity in vivo. This finding highlights the critical role of inhibition in neural processing and brain function.

Keywords:
cerebral cortexcomputational modelsconductancedynamic-clampspike-triggered average

More Related Videos

Automated Multimodal Stimulation and Simultaneous Neuronal Recording from Multiple Small Organisms
08:28

Automated Multimodal Stimulation and Simultaneous Neuronal Recording from Multiple Small Organisms

Published on: March 3, 2023

Induction of an Isoelectric Brain State to Investigate the Impact of Endogenous Synaptic Activity on Neuronal Excitability In Vivo
10:19

Induction of an Isoelectric Brain State to Investigate the Impact of Endogenous Synaptic Activity on Neuronal Excitability In Vivo

Published on: March 31, 2016

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Stochastic Noise Application for the Assessment of Medial Vestibular Nucleus Neuron Sensitivity In Vitro
06:22

Stochastic Noise Application for the Assessment of Medial Vestibular Nucleus Neuron Sensitivity In Vitro

Published on: August 28, 2019

Automated Multimodal Stimulation and Simultaneous Neuronal Recording from Multiple Small Organisms
08:28

Automated Multimodal Stimulation and Simultaneous Neuronal Recording from Multiple Small Organisms

Published on: March 3, 2023

Induction of an Isoelectric Brain State to Investigate the Impact of Endogenous Synaptic Activity on Neuronal Excitability In Vivo
10:19

Induction of an Isoelectric Brain State to Investigate the Impact of Endogenous Synaptic Activity on Neuronal Excitability In Vivo

Published on: March 31, 2016

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Computational Neuroscience
  • Cellular Electrophysiology

Background:

  • Cortical neurons in vivo often operate in high-conductance states, where synaptic activity significantly increases input conductance.
  • While strong inhibitory conductances are known, the specific contributions of excitation and inhibition to neural fluctuations remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of inhibition in driving spiking activity within high-conductance states in cortical neurons.
  • To differentiate the contributions of excitatory and inhibitory fluctuations to action potential generation.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized computational models and dynamic-clamp experiments to simulate high-conductance states.
  • Applied maximum likelihood methods to analyze in vivo intracellular recordings from cortical neurons.

Main Results:

  • During high-conductance states, neural spikes are predominantly determined by fluctuations in inhibition (inhibitory noise).
  • This contrasts with low-conductance states, where excitatory conductances are the primary drivers of spiking.
  • Analysis of in vivo recordings confirmed that action potentials correlate strongly with inhibitory fluctuations in awake animals.

Conclusions:

  • Inhibitory fluctuations play a determinant role in evoking spikes in cortical neurons during high-conductance states.
  • These findings challenge feed-forward processing models and emphasize the significance of inhibitory dynamics in neural computation.