Dendritic excitations govern back-propagation via a spike-rate accelerometer

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-55819-9
• Publication Date: 2025-02-04T12:43:49Z
• Authors: Pojeong Park; J. David Wong-Campos; Daniel G. Itkis; Byung Hun Lee; Yitong Qi; Hunter C. Davis; Benjamin Antin; Amol Pasarkar; Jonathan B. Grimm; Sarah E. Plutkis; Katie L. Holland; Liam Paninski; Luke D. Lavis; Adam E. Cohen
• Keywords: Science; Q; Article

SummaryDendrites on neurons support nonlinear electrical excitations, but the computational significance of these events is not well understood. We developed molecular, optical, and analytical tools to map sub-millisecond voltage dynamics throughout the dendritic trees of CA1 pyramidal neurons under diverse optogenetic and synaptic stimulus patterns, in acute brain slices. We observed history-dependent spike back-propagation in distal dendrites, driven by locally generated Na+spikes (dSpikes). Dendritic depolarization created a transient window for dSpike propagation, opened by A-type KVchannel inactivation, and closed by slow NaVinactivation. Collisions of dSpikes with synaptic inputs triggered calcium channel and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-dependent plateau potentials, with accompanying complex spikes at the soma. This hierarchical ion channel network acts as a spike-rate accelerometer, providing an intuitive picture of how dendritic excitations shape associative plasticity rules.