Dendritic morphology and signal delay in superior colliculus neurons

摘要

Experimental dta derived from two classes of uperior colliculus neurons-deep layer neurons (DLNs) and superficial layer neurons (SLNs)-have been to study the influence of dendritic anatomy on synaptic input processing. Anatomical measures of dendrites were first determined. Compartmental neuron models (3 of each class) were built to estimate passinve membrane parameters and to calculate functional characteristics of synaptic iput (attenuation, delay and time window). The two cell classes show distinct differences both in morphological and functional characteristics. While the functional parameters derived on SLNs are compat- ible with time-critical functions, DLNs in contrast show integrator traits.