A Biophysical Simulation of Intrinsic and Network Properties of Entorhinal Cortex

Biophysical simulations of stellate and non-stellate (pyramidal-like) cells in entorhinal cortex were used to analyze the currents underlying intrinsic properties such as subthreshold oscillations and plateau depolarization potential oscillations. In accord with experimental data, simulations demonstrated increases in subthreshold oscillation frequency and amplitude when a cell is depolarized from resting potential. Networks of reduced model cells were used to model field potentials due to synchronous population activity induced by muscarinic agonists in slice preparations of entorhinal cortex. The dynamics of these field potentials were replicated, including an initial long-duration ictiform event with decreasing frequency, followed by short-duration ictiform events occurring at regular long intervals. Key words: biophysical simulation, entorhinal cortex, subthreshold oscillations, plateau depolarizations, synchronous population activity 1 present address: Dept. of Numerical Analy..