Two-Trace Model for Spike-Timing-Dependent Synaptic Plasticity.

NEUROPLASTICITY; METHYL aspartate receptors; CALCIUM channels; DENDRITIC cells; BIOLOGICAL neural networks; HIPPOCAMPUS (Brain)

We present an effective model for timing-dependent synaptic plasticity (STDP) in terms of two interacting traces, corresponding to the fraction of activated NMDA receptors and the Ca2+ concentration in the dendritic spine of the postsynaptic neuron. This model intends to bridge the worlds of existing simplistic phenomenological rules and highly detailed models, thus constituting a practical tool for the study of the interplay of neural activity and synaptic plasticity in extended spiking neural networks. For isolated pairs of pre- and postsynaptic spikes, the standard pairwise STDP rule is reproduced, with appropriate parameters determining the respective weights and timescales for the causal and the anticausal contributions. The model contains otherwise only three free parameters, which can be adjusted to reproduce triplet nonlinearities in hippocampal culture and cortical slices. We also investigate the transition from time-dependent to rate-dependent plasticity occurring for both correlated and uncorrelated spike patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Neural Computation is the property of MIT Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)