Inferring single neuron properties in conductance based balanced networks

Balanced states in large networks are a usual hypothesis for explaining the variability of neural activity in cortical systems. In this regime the statistics of the inputs is characterized by static and dynamic fluctuations. The dynamic fluctuations have a Gaussian distribution. Such statistics allows to use reverse correlation methods, by recording synaptic inputs and the spike trains of ongoing spontaneous activity without any additional input. By using this method, properties of the single neuron dynamics that are masked by the balanced state can be quantified. To show the feasibility of this approach we apply it to large networks of conductance based neurons. The networks are classified as Type I or Type II according to the bifurcations which neurons of the different populations undergo near the firing onset. We also analyze mixed networks, in which each population has a mixture of different neuronal types. We determine under which conditions the intrinsic noise generated by the network can be used to apply reverse correlation methods. We find that under realistic conditions we can ascertain with low error the types of neurons present in the network. We also find that data from neurons with similar firing rates can be combined to perform covariance analysis. We compare the results of these methods (that do not requite any external input) to the standard procedure (that requires the injection of Gaussian noise into a single neuron). We find a good agreement between the two procedures.