Impact of Dendritic Size and Dendritic Topology on Burst Firing in Pyramidal Cells
Figure 9
Mean electrotonic path length, but not input conductance, correlates with the region of burst firing for trees with uniform segment diameters and under somatic stimulation.
Except for the white contour lines, the left and right panels are identical and show the degree of burst firing (color coded) as a function of both dendritic topology and total dendritic length. In the left panel, contour lines of equal input conductance (IC, in µS) are superimposed. These contour lines show all the combinations of dendritic length and dendritic topology that result in a given input conductance. Similarly, in the right panel, contour lines of equal mean electrotonic path length (MEP, in units of the electrotonic length constant) are superimposed. These contour lines show all the combinations of dendritic length and dendritic topology that result in a given MEP value. The onset and cessation of bursting are strongly associated with mean electrotonic path length, but not with input conductance.