Connectionists: New Purkinje neuron paper; alcohol action

[MICHAEL FORREST]

Group members may be interested in this new paper. 
Forrest MD (2015) Simulation of
alcohol action upon a detailed Purkinje neuron model and a simpler surrogate
model that runs >400 times faster. BMC Neuroscience 16(1):27.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/16/27
Contributions of the paper:

(1) New detailed computational model of the cerebellar Purkinje neuron (coded in NEURON and available in modelDB)(2) New reduced (2 compartment) model of the Purkinje neuron that runs >400 times faster than the detailed model. This reduced model replicates the behavior of the full model and can be used (a) in network simulations, to investigate how distinctive single neuron Purkinje behaviors are important to network and system function (b) as a proxy to find parameter values that will permit the full model to replicate new behavior.(3) It shows a new reduction method - for producing a faithful 2-compartment surrogate model of a detailed multi-compartment model. We apply it to the Purkinje neuron but we envisage that it will be equally applicable to other neuron types - so please try it with your own neuron model investigations. The collapse NEURON code is included in the modelDB entry.  (4) It further confirms our prior work which shows that the the sodium-potassium pump controls the intrinsic firing mode of Purkinje neurons; and that the sodium-potassium pump is a computational element in the cerebellum and the brain. This is a significant re-appraisal of the role of these pumps, which previously were thought to have no direct role in brain computations.(5) Why do people fall over when drunk? This paper suggests that alcohol corrupts body movements by inhibiting sodium-potassium pumps in the cerebellum. 
Kindest regards,Michael  		 	   		  
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