ABSTRACT
Electrical coupling occurs between neurons in a number of nuclei in the mammalian brain. However, few attempts have been made so far to devise models that can quantitatively measure the affect of electrotonic coupling on the evaluation of passive cable parameters of single neurons coupled to other neurons in a network or cluster. A neuron with passive membrane properties, coupled to other neurons via dendrodendritic gap junctions was modeled as a non-sealed-end equivalent cylinder attached to a lumped soma. The present theory can also be extended to incorporate neurons with somatic gap junctions or dendritic trees with taper. Little conclusive information exists on the strength of gap junctions between neurons in the mammalian brain. Determination of cable parameters for neurons with dendrodendritic gap junctions could have enormous implications in understanding how neurons process information. The effect of a shunt placed along the distal dendrites on the passive membrane parameters was first examined by Carlen and Durand with a compartmental model.
