They studied the dendritic depolarisation produced by the climbing fibre synaptic potential in cerebellar Purkinje neurons using a cutting-edge imaging approach developed in our institute. Then, they used computer simulations from a detailed model including all relevant channels to match experimental data and they extrapolated the parallel activity of all channels. This approach will be used to investigate other neuronal types to explore the physiological behaviour of native channels and the pathologies caused by channel dysfunctions named “channelopathies”.
Membrane potential and calcium signal associated with a climbing fibre synaptic potential from a site of a Purkinje neuron dendrite outlined by a cylinder. The larger cylinder below illustrates the physical model containing all activated channels and other mechanisms contributing to the imaged signals.