Modeling voltage-dependent channels.
Résumé
This chapter describes the voltage-gated ion channels. It considers the different types of formalisms in modeling ionic currents as the action potential and voltage-clamp recordings of the T-type calcium current in thalamic neurons. The chapter specifically reviews the voltage-clamp behavior of the sodium channel and the genesis of action potentials, as well as the characteristics of the T-type calcium current and the genesis of bursts of action potentials by the T-current in thalamic neurons. It shows that nonlinear thermodynamic models offer fits of a quality comparable to empirical Hodgkin-Huxley models, but that their form is physically more plausible.