The influence of neuron shape changes on the firing characteristics
The neuron is highly full of variety in its shape and size. Each neuron has changed its shape to adapt to the region and function in the nervous system. The influence of neuron shape on the firing characteristics, however, has still been unclear. In this paper, we evaluate numerically the influence of the changes of the neuron shape on the firing characteristics. We construct neuronal micro-compartmental models of the pyramidal cell at the CA3 hippocampus to analyze quantitatively the shape dependence of the firing characteristics. We find that, the sharper the shape of the apical-dendrite hillock is, the higher the firing frequency becomes and, at the same time, the firing latency gets shorter for the apical-dendrite synaptic stimulus. These facts lead to a hypothesis that the neuron has changed its shape to respond more sensitively to the stimulus injected at the apical dendrite.
neuron shape pyramidal cell hippocampus firing latency firing rate