Dendritic current flow in relay cells and interneurons of the cat's lateral geniculate nucleus

Abstract

We used a passive, steady-state cable model to simulate current flow within the dendritic arbors of relay cells and interneurons in the cat's lateral geniculate nucleus. In confirmation of our previous work on relay cells, we found them to be electronically compact; thus a postsynaptic potential generated anywhere in a relay cell's dendritic arbor spreads with relatively little attenuation throughout the arbor and to its soma. An interneuron is very different. Its arbor is much more extensive electronically with the result that a postsynaptic potential significantly affects only local areas of the dendritic arbor, and only inputs to proximal dendrites or to the soma will much affect the soma. Since much of the interneuron's synaptic output derives from dendritic terminals that are both presynaptic and postsynaptic, its dendritic arbor may contain many local circuits that perform neuronal computations independently of each other, and this processing might be invisible to the soma. Furthermore, these interneurons possess conventional axonal outputs, and these contact postsynaptic profiles that are quite different from the postsynaptic targets of the dendritic terminals. Presumably, the axonal output reflects the integrated computations performed on proximal synaptic inputs, and it uses conventional action potentials to convey this output. We suggest that the interneuron does double duty: its dendritic arbor is used for many independent local circuits that perform one set of neuronal computations, and its axonal output represents conventional neuronal integration of proximal synaptic inputs.