Dendritic Calcium Currents in Thalamic Relay Cells

Techniques of in vitro whole-cell recording and compartmental modeling were combined to investigate dendritic structure and calcium currents in individual thalamocortical neurons. Voltage-clamp recordings of IT obtained in intact and dissociated ventrobasal neurons were used to constrain IT conductances and passive parameters incorporated in morphorealistic models. High dendritic IT densities were found necessary to establish congruent model behavior. Several methodologies based on axial resistance conservation were developed to algorithmically reduce thalamocortical morphology into a behaviorally congruent low-order compartmental model. This type of simpli ed model is suitable for investigating the functional role played by distal Tcurrent localization at the network level in sleep oscillations and epilepsy.