A realistic computational model of the local circuitry of the cuneate nucleus

Abstract

[Abstract] Intracellular recordings obtained under cutaneous and lemniscal stimulation show that the afferent fibers can establish excitatory and inhibitory synaptic connections with cuneothalamic neurons [5]. In addition, distinct types of recurrent collaterals with the capability of either exciting or inhibiting both cuneothalamic neurons and interneurons were also discovered [6]. With these data we have generated hypothesis about which circuits are implicated and also developed realistic computational models to test the hypothesis and study the cuneate properties [17,18]. The results show that the cuneate could perform spatial and temporal filtering and therefore detect dynamic edges.