The Sodium-Potassium Pump Controls the Intrinsic Firing of the Cerebellar Purkinje Neuron
Figure 9
With inhibitory synaptic inputs unblocked, some Purkinje cells fire in a repeating bimodal pattern (tonic spiking/quiescence) and the model can replicate their response to Na+/K+ pump block by ouabain.
Panels B, C, D, and E correspond to the labelled parts of panel A. A, With simulated GABAergic synaptic inputs innervating the model, it fires in a bimodal pattern of tonic spiking and quiescence (B). The red arrow denotes the onset of simulated ouabain application. Following this onset, the firing pattern is switched from bimodal to trimodal (C) and then transitions into continuous bursting (D). After a period, this bursting acquires a gradient of depolarization and ultimately converges upon a somatic depolarization block, in which the only deflections observed are those of Ca2+ spikes that have travelled into the soma from the dendritic arborisation (E). Panel A scaling is encoded in the first scale bar (20 mV, 1 s). The scaling of panels B, C, D and E is encoded in the second scale bar (20 mV, 0.2 s).