An Analysis of the Transitions Between Down and Up States of the Cortical Slow Oscillation Under Urethane Anaesthesia

Overview

Journal J Biol Phys

Specialty Biophysics

Date 2009 Dec 5

PMID 19960241

Citations 6

Authors

Marcus T Wilson

Melissa Barry

John N J Reynolds

William P Crump

D Alistair Steyn-Ross

Moira L Steyn-Ross

James W Sleigh

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of the transition between the low- and high-firing states of the cortical slow oscillation by using intracellular recordings of the membrane potential from cortical neurons of rats. We investigate the evidence for a bistability in assemblies of cortical neurons playing a major role in the maintenance of this oscillation. We show that the trajectory of a typical transition takes an approximately exponential form, equivalent to the response of a resistor-capacitor circuit to a step-change in input. The time constant for the transition is negatively correlated with the membrane potential of the low-firing state, and values are broadly equivalent to neural time constants measured elsewhere. Overall, the results do not strongly support the hypothesis of a bistability in cortical neurons; rather, they suggest the cortical manifestation of the oscillation is a result of a step-change in input to the cortical neurons. Since there is evidence from previous work that a phase transition exists, we speculate that the step-change may be a result of a bistability within other brain areas, such as the thalamus, or a bistability among only a small subset of cortical neurons, or as a result of more complicated brain dynamics.

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