Abstract
Cultured lobster stomatogastric ganglion (STG) neurons appear to regulate their intrinsic properties in an attempt to maintain stable activity patterns. Previous theoretical descriptions of activity-dependent regulation resulted in highly restricted sets of maximal conductances that involved a number of free parameters. We first explore a single-compartment model with a conductance regulation scheme that is guided by calcium-dependent feedback pathways that span multiple time scales. The exploration of maximal conductance parameters in the model is completely unrestricted and the number of parameters is greatly reduced. We then explore the interplay between network interactions and single cell regulation in a network model of simple cells each having a single calcium feedback mechanism. It is shown that when the cells are properly coupled such a network is able to produce an oscillatory pattern that requires interaction between the elements, but that when the cells are uncoupled, they become capable of oscillating independently.