Condition of supralinear amplification in pairing action potentials with EPSPS

Abstract

We simulate pairing backpropagating action potentials (APs) with excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) in a hippocampal CA1 model neuron, and make clear the synaptic-site dependence of the supralinear amplification, which is considered as the origin of LTP in spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP). Pairing APs with EPSPs at randomly determined synaptic sites reveals that the supralinear amplification needs modest APs with strong EPSPs, and the sites are restricted in apical middle dendrites and basal distal dendrites with small diameters. We also discuss the importance of this restriction in hippocampal information processing.