A continuous cable method for determining the transient potential in passive dendritic trees of known geometry (Q1080376)

A mathematical procedure for determining the transient voltage response to injected current or synaptic input in a passive dendritic tree of known geometry is presented that is simple to implement since it is based on one equation. It proved to be highly accurate when results were compared to those obtained analytically for dendritic trees satisfying equivalent cylinder constraints. In this method the passive cable equation is used to express the potential for each interbranch segment of the dendritic tree. After applying boundary conditions at branch points and terminations, a system of equations for the Laplace transform of the potential at the ends of the segments can be readily obtained by inspection of the dendritic tree. Except for the starting equation, all of the equations have a simple format that varies only with the number of branches meeting at a branch point. The system of equations is solved in the Laplace domain, and the result is numerically inverted back to the time domain for each specified time point (the method is independent of any time increment \(\Delta\) t). The potential at any selected location in the dendritic tree can be obtained using this method.