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Updated: May 12, 2026

3D Modeling of Dendritic Spines with Synaptic Plasticity
Published on: May 18, 2020
A calcium-based simple model of multiple spike interactions in spike-timing-dependent plasticity
Takumi Uramoto1, Hiroyuki Torikai
1Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan. uramoto_takumi@hopf.sys.es.osaka-u.ac.jp
Abstract:
Spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) is a form of synaptic modification that depends on the relative timings of presynaptic and postsynaptic spikes. In this letter, we proposed a calcium-based simple STDP model, described by an ordinary differential equation having only three state variables: one represents the density of intracellular calcium, one represents a fraction of open state NMDARs, and one represents the synaptic weight. We shown that in spite of its simplicity, the model can reproduce the properties of the plasticity that have been experimentally measured in various brain areas (e.g., layer 2/3 and 5 visual cortical slices, hippocampal cultures, and layer 2/3 somatosensory cortical slices) with respect to various patterns of presynaptic and postsynaptic spikes. In addition, comparisons with other STDP models are made, and the significance and advantages of the proposed model are discussed.
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