A Realistic Computational Model of the Local Circuitry of the Cuneate Nucleus

Intracellular recordings obtained under cutaneous and lemniscal stimulation show that the afferent fibers can establish excitatory and inhibitory synaptic connections with cuneothalamic neurons [5]. In addition, distinct types of recurrent collaterals with the capability of either exciting or inhibiting both cuneothalamic neurons and interneurons were also discovered [6]. With these data we have generated hypothesis about which circuits are implicated and also developed realistic computational models to test the hypothesis and study the cuneate properties [17,18]. The results show that the cuneate could perform spatial and temporal filtering and therefore detect dynamic edges.