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Balanced State

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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

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Synonyms

High-conductance state

Definition

The balanced state of neurons is characterized by a high value of the total membrane conductance caused by synaptic inputs. It is the state of cortical neurons in vivo in awake animals, and it is due to massive excitatory and inhibitory inputs that almost cancel out. In this state, the responses are driven by fluctuations (possible also due to coincident events) in the input, and due to a greatly reduced effective membrane time constant, the neuron responds rapidly.

Detailed Description

The notion of high-conductance states, and the fact that neurons could integrate differently in such states, was first proposed by modeling studies. A meanwhile classical dichotomy distinguished between two operating modes of neurons: the integrator mode and the coincidence detection mode. In the integrator mode, the postsynaptic neuron is emitting spikes, because it integrates over time the excitatory presynaptic inputs. In the coincidence detection mode, it...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Adaptive and Regenerative Software Systems, Universität Rostock, Rostock, Germany

    Lars Schwabe

Authors
  1. Lars Schwabe
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lars Schwabe .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA

    Ranu Jung

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Schwabe, L. (2014). Balanced State. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_573-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_573-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

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