Computational study of action potential initiation and action potential backpropagation in mitral cell of the olfactory bulb

Abstract

Abstract A neuron sends information in the form of electrical activity called an action potential. The action potential propagates along the axon to all parts of the cell body. The opposite phenomena of this mechanism were observed in the neurons from various brain area as action potential backpropagation. We studied computationally the action potential initiation and action potential backpropagation in the model of a mitral cell of the olfactory bulb that consists of soma, primary dendrite, secondary dendrite, tuft dendrite, axon hillock, and initial segment. The neuronal activity was constructed with voltage-dependent sodium channels and potassium channels. In the results, we provide that the action potential initiation occurs in soma with an amplitude of 40 mV and the action potential propagation decrease as the distance gets farther from the soma. By plotting the amplitude as a function of the distance from the soma, we obtain the magnitude of action potential backpropagation amplitude has an average of about 42.7 mV. This result consistent with observations in experiments where the normalization of action potential backpropagation amplitude of the mitral cell as a function of the distance from the soma is constant.