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Related Concept Videos

Action Potential

Action Potential

Neurons communicate by firing action potentials—the electrochemical signal that is propagated along the axon. The signal results in the release of neurotransmitters at axon terminals, thereby transmitting information to the nervous system. An action potential is a specific "all-or-none" change in membrane potential that results in a rapid spike in voltage.
Membrane potential in neurons
Neurons typically have a resting membrane potential of about -70 millivolts (mV). When they receive...

Action Potential

Action Potential

Neurons communicate by firing action potentials—the electrochemical signal that is propagated along the axon. The signal results in the release of neurotransmitters at axon terminals, thereby transmitting information to the nervous system. An action potential is a specific "all-or-none" change in membrane potential that results in a rapid spike in voltage.
Membrane potential in neurons
Neurons typically have a resting membrane potential of about -70 millivolts (mV). When they receive...

Action Potentials

Action Potentials

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 11, 2026

Computational Modeling of Retinal Neurons for Visual Prosthesis Research - Fundamental Approaches

Computational Modeling of Retinal Neurons for Visual Prosthesis Research - Fundamental Approaches

Published on: June 21, 2022

Increased Perceptual Reliability Reduces Membrane Potential Variability in Cortical Neurons.

Ben von Hünerbein¹, Jakob Jordan^2,3, Matthijs Oude Lohuis^4,5

¹Department of Physiology, University of Bern, Bern 3012, Switzerland ben.vonhuenerbein@unibe.ch.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience

|November 13, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Cortical neurons decrease their internal electrical variability when processing reliable sensory information, reflecting how the brain tracks uncertainty during decision-making.

Keywords:

Bayesian computation membrane potentials posterior parietal cortex simulation-based inference theme/topic uncertainty representation variability quenching

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Computational Neuroscience
Decision Making

Background:

Uncertainty is a key factor in decision-making across species.
The neural representation of uncertainty in the cortex is not well understood.
Theoretical models predict reduced neuronal membrane potential variability with stimulus-triggered uncertainty computation.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how cortical neurons represent and respond to stimulus reliability and uncertainty.
To test theoretical predictions of reduced membrane potential variability in vivo.
To explore the role of posterior parietal cortex neurons in multisensory decision-making.

Main Methods:

Utilized simulation-based inference to analyze membrane potential statistics from single-unit recordings.
Recorded from posterior parietal cortex neurons in male mice performing a multisensory change detection task.
Examined the relationship between stimulus reliability and neuronal membrane potential variability.

Main Results:

Inferred membrane potential statistics revealed a decrease in variability in response to task-relevant stimuli.
More reliable stimuli induced larger decreases in membrane potential variability compared to less reliable stimuli.
Findings align with theoretical predictions of uncertainty tracking in cortical neurons.

Conclusions:

Cortical neurons dynamically adjust their membrane potential variability to track uncertainty.
This mechanism provides Bayesian benefits for downstream neural computations.
The study offers insights into the neural basis of decision-making under uncertainty.