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Electrical Synapse

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Figure 1. Electrical synapse property dialog.

Free C++ source code for the electrical synapse model is available.


This dialog box is used to specify the properties of different types of electrical synapses. An electrical synapse is a class of synapse in which current passes directly from the pre-synaptic neuron to the post-synaptic neuron, due to the presence of a low-resistance path between the cytoplasm of the two neurons, mediated by gap junctions. electrical synapses can be either rectifying or non-rectifying. In non-rectifying electrical synapses, the resistance of the gap junction coupling does not change. In rectifying electrical synapses, the strength of the coupling depends upon the junctional potential, i.e. the intracellular voltage difference between the two cells. See Synaptic Models for more details of how the different classes of synapse are modeled.

Synapse Properties

All the synapses in this module are derived from the Link object and share the properties of that item. For a description of these properties please see the text that discusses the Link properties.

High coupling
Enter the maximum coupling conductance (which is present when the junctional potential exceeds the saturation voltage; see below) for this synaptic type. Note: coupling is defined as an absolute value, rather than per unit size. This means that the effect of coupling changes with the relative electrical size of the two coupled neurons, and will not be symmetrical if they are of unequal size (for comparison see Spiking Chemical Synaptic Types and Non-Spiking Chemical Synaptic Types).
Acceptable range: 0 to 10 uS.

Low coupling
Enter the minimum coupling conductance (which is always present) for this synaptic type. See above for size effects.
Acceptable range: 0 to 10 uS.

Name
This is a text description of this synapse.

Synapse Type
This is the type of synapse. It can be spiking-chemical, non-spiking chemical, or electrical. The is a read-only value.

Turn-On Saturate
This is the saturation junctional potential at which the junctional conductance reaches its maximum value.
Acceptable range: -100 to 300 mV.

Turn-on Threshold
The threshold junctional potential at which the junctional conductance starts to increase above the minimum level.
Acceptable range: -100 to 300 mV.