45
gbs for every compartment was obtained using the reduced model, whereas to do so
for the active model would have required about 21 hours. Hence, to obtain a full
portrait of synaptic scaling for this neuron, even factoring in the cost of computing
the BT matrices, the reduced system offers a factor of 4 speed-up.
2.5.3 Application to Dendritic Resonance
Neurons have been shown to respond preferentially to stimuli occurring at spe-
cific frequencies (Hutcheon and Yarom, 2000) (Hasselmo et al., 2007) (Ulrich, 2002),
and quantifying how this resonant frequency varies with stimulus location is a dif-
ficult experimental task. However, our reduced model is well-suited to this type of
simulation.
Acquiring the resonant frequency data is time-consuming if high frequency reso-
lution is desired. Typical experimental studies stimulate the cell with a ZAP current,
which has the form
I(t) = a sin(6tc + d) (2.42)
for some constants a, b, c, and d, with t in ms. The resonant frequency can then be
obtained by dividing the Fourier transform of the voltage by the Fourier transform
of the input current (Puil et al., 1986). However, this limits the frequency resolution
unless very long or detailed simulations are performed. On the other hand, brute force
methods give better resolution, but are slow because they require many simulations