Before revision:  We extend the theory underlying the Neural Engineering Framework to systematically exploit nonlinear interactions between the local membrane potential and conductance-based synaptic channels as a computational resource. In particular, we demonstrate that even a single passive distal dendritic compartment with AMPA and GABA-A synapses connected to a leaky integrate-and-fire neuron supports the computation of a wide variety of multivariate, bandlimited functions, including the Euclidean norm, controlled shunting, and non-negative multiplication.
After revision:  We extend the theory underlying the Neural Engineering Framework to systematically exploit nonlinear interactions between the local membrane potential and conductance-based synapses. We apply these extensions to a two-compartment LIF neuron that can be seen as a simple model of passive dendritic computation. We show that it is possible to incorporate neuron models with input-dependent nonlinearities into the Neural Engineering Framework without compromising high-level function and that nonlinear post-synaptic currents can be systematically exploited to compute a wide variety of multivariate, bandlimited functions, including the Euclidean norm, controlled shunting, and non-negative multiplication.